Sale: Triton VIII, Lot: 1134. Estimate $10000.  Closing Date: Monday, 10 January 2005.  Sold For $8000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

HADRIAN. 117-138 AD. AV Aureus (7.11 gm, 6h). Struck 118 AD. IMP CAESAR TRAIAN HADRIANVS AVG, laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right, seen from front / P M TR P COS DES III, SALVS AVG in exergue, Salus seated left on throne, feet on footstool, feeding serpent entwined about altar beside her from a patera in her oustretched right hand and leaning left arm on throne arm. RIC II 51 var. (laureate bust right, slight drapery on left shoulder); D. Hendin, "A Bar Kokhba Lamp Hoard Collection," Studies Mildenberg 3 (this coin); Strack 48g1; BMCRE pg. 378, 6; Calicó 1370 var. (laureate head right); Cohen 1349/1351 (obv./rev.). EF. ($10,000)

Ex Bar Kokhba Lamp Hoard.

Apparently discovered near Hebron, a small group of sixteen gold, silver, and bronze coins were found together with two fragments of an unused oil lamp that may have been used to conceal them. The latest of the coins, a denarius of Antoninus Pius, struck in 151-152 CE, dates the hoard to a little over fifteen years after the defeat of Bar Kokhba in 135 CE. In addition to the circulating coins, the inclusion of the seven bronze coins, covering the three years of the Bar Kokhba War, is noteworthy. While they were of no commercial value, since they had been demonetized after the war, they were nevertheless kept for their sentimental value.