Sale: CNG 70, Lot: 738. Estimate $1000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 21 September 2005.  Sold For $2600. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

GAIUS (CALIGULA). 37-41 AD. Æ Sestertius (26.37 g, 6h). Rome mint. Struck 37-38 AD. Laureate head left / ADLOCVT COH above and below, Gaius standing left on daïs with camp chair behind, addressing five soldiers standing right, holding parazonia and shields; four legionary aquilas behind. RIC I 32; BMCRE 33; Cohen 1. VF, brown patina with a trace of green, smoothed and lightly tooled. ($1000)

Highly unusual on this type is the lack of the letters S C, which designate a coin issued by decree of the Senate (Senatus Consulto). From Republican times, the formula had been used on both silver and bronze coinage, but under the Empire, the emperor took responsibility for the precious metal coinage and left only the base metal coins to be issued by the Senate and accordingly marked S C. Imperial bronze coinage without the formula is generally thought to have been issued under special circumstances and under an authority other than the Senate. The ADLOCVT(io) COH(ortium) sestertii are thought to have been a special distribution issue for the Praetorian Guard personally funded out of the emperor's own purse.