Sale: CNG 70, Lot: 647. Estimate $200.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 21 September 2005.  Sold For $240. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

[Roman Imperial] CLAUDIUS. 41-54 AD. Æ Sestertius (27.03 g, 6h). Rome mint. Laureate head right: c/m; TI AV (ligate and retrograde) in rectangle / Spes advancing left, holding flower and raising hem of skirt. For coin: RIC I 99; Von Kaenel Type 55; BMCRE 124; Cohen 85; for c/m: cf. Grünwald 120; cf. Pangerl 54. VF, orichalcum surfaces, light porosity. ($200)

This appears to be an imitation countermark applied to an official Rome mint sestertius of Claudius. See D.W. MacDowell and A.V.M. Hubrecht, "Countermarks on the Aes of Claudius from Nijmegen," Proceedings of the XIth International Numismatic Congress, vol. 2, pp. 265-7. The official TI AV countermark was apparently applied to lightweight coinage struck at a local mint in the Rhineland (see previous lot).