Sale: CNG 67, Lot: 1409. Estimate $2000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 22 September 2004.  Sold For $2035. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

TRAJAN. 98-117 AD. Æ Sestertius (27.79 gm). Struck 100 AD. Laureate bust right, slight drapery on left shoulder / Tetrastyle and triple-bay triumphal arch surmounted by twelve horses. RIC II -; Banti 333 (same dies); BMCRE -; Cohen -. Near VF, green and brown patina, light pitting on obverse. Extremely rare, the second known example of this coin; the other is in the Vatican Museum. ($2000)

From the Tony Hardy Collection.

It is uncertain which arch this coin depicts, but its details are strikingly similar to depictions of the ornate entrance to the Basilica Ulpia in the Forum Traiani found on an aureus (RIC II 246) and Sestertius (see lot 1432; see also M. Tameanko, Monumental Coins, pp. 110-111, and pl. IV, 48).