Sale: Triton VIII, Lot: 1024. Estimate $1500.  Closing Date: Monday, 10 January 2005.  Sold For $900. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ANTONINUS PIUS. 138-161 AD. Æ Sestertius (25.53 gm, 12h). Struck 149 AD. ANTONINVS AVG PIVS P P TR P XII, laureate bust right, slight drapery on left shoulder / TEMPORVM FELICITAS, COS IIII in exergue, S C across field, crossed cornucopiae from which a grape bunch flanked by two grain ears hang, surmounted by busts of two boys, vis-à-vis. RIC III 857; Strack 1026-; Banti 411; BMCRE 1827 note; Cohen -. EF, flat black-green patina with traces of brick-red, minor pitting in reverse field. ($1500)

From the Michael Weller Collection. Ex Numismatic Fine Arts XXXI (18 March 1993), lot 615; Superior (1-2 December 1990), lot 2468; Kovacs X (18 May 1990), lot 419; Christie's (2 May 1989), lot 831; Harlan J. Berk 31 (12 April 1984), lot 160.

The infants are thought to represent T. Aelius Antoninus and T. Aurelius Antoninus, the twin sons of Marcus Aurelius and Faustina Junior born in 149 AD. These were the first male offspring of the couple, offering hope for the establishment of the new dynasty, but both died in infancy.