Sale: CNG 67, Lot: 1499. Estimate $200.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 22 September 2004.  Sold For $120. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ANTONINUS PIUS, as Caesar. 25 February-10 July 138 AD. Æ As (11.24 gm). Bare head right / Clasped hands holding caduceus and grain ears. RIC II 1088a (Hadrian); BMCRE 1948 (Hadrian); Cohen 1066. Fine, dark green patina, some smoothing. Rare. ($200)

From the Michael Weller Collection.

SECTION INTRO

The Michael Weller Collection of Antoninus Pius Bronze

CNG is pleased to present the Michael Weller collection of bronze coinage of Antoninus Pius. The present offering includes over fifty coins and was assembled with the intent of obtaining significant sestertii or asses reflecting the historically important events of the reign of Antoninus Pius. In total, the collection contains specimens tracing his entire career, including rare issues as Caesar. Moreover, the collection also includes several unique and unpublished specimens.

Regarding Antoninus Pius, the eighteenth-century historian Edward Gibbon concluded "the reign of Antoninus is marked by the rare advantage of furnishing very few materials for history," since it fell "[d]uring a happy period of more than fourscore years" of peaceful administration. Modern scholars and numismatists have followed Gibbon's interpretation, viewing in particular the coinage of Antoninus Pius as pleasant, but with apparently little scholarly interest. Pius' issues, in fact, contain numerous important historically-related issues and reflect that emperor's great efforts to maintain Gibbon's "happy period."

Of the following bronze coins of Antoninus Pius and Divus Antoninus Pius (lots 1499-1555), only lots 1554 and 1555 are NOT part of the Michael Weller Collection.