Sale: CNG 64, Lot: 1051. Estimate $2000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 24 September 2003.  Sold For $1500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

TRAJAN. 98-117 AD. Æ Sestertius (25.99 gm). Struck circa 112-115 AD. Laureate and draped bust right / DACIA AVGVST, PROVINCIA/S C in two lines in exergue, Dacia seated left on rock, holding aquila; two children before, one holding grain, the other, grapes. RIC II 621 var. (slight drapery); Banti 55; Cohen 125 var. (aegis, no drapery). Near EF, dark green-brown patina. Rare. ($2000)

The reverse shows the province of Dacia at peace, after Trajan’s two campaigns, in 103 and 105 AD, to subdue the Dacian king Decembalus. The war-like Dacians were dispersed, and a new population of farmers and herdsmen took their place. The rock formation that Dacia and the children sit upon, with its twin peaks, may represent the Iron Gate, the formidable mountainous pass leading into Dacia.