Sale: CNG 64, Lot: 1003. Estimate $150.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 24 September 2003.  Sold For $600. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

GALBA. 68-69 AD. Countermark on an Æ Sestertius (26.25 gm) of Divus Augustus of Rome mint. Divus Augustus, radiate, holding laurel branch and sceptre, seated left in quadriga pulled by four elephants, each with a rider / Legend around large S C; countermarks: GALBA and NER•CPP (NE ligate), both in rectangular incuses. RPC I pg. 345 (for GALBA countermark); for host coin: RIC I 62 (Tiberius). Coin fair, countermarks fine and VF, dark green patina, smoothed. Very rare countermarks. ($250)

The GALBA countermark is recorded on six specimens in RPC, all provincial issues of Nero at Nicaea in Bithynia. Its only previous appearance on an imperial coin was a sestertius of Nero Claudius Drusus in CNG 57, lot 1056 (but see next lot for another of these on a sestertius of Claudius). The second countermark is completely unrecorded in the references.