Sale: CNG 70, Lot: 959. Estimate $7500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 21 September 2005.  Sold For $7500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

HADRIAN. 117-138 AD. AV Aureus (7.19 g, 6h). Struck 124-128 AD. Laureate head right, slight drapery at shoulder / Hadrian on horseback right, holding spear. RIC II 187d; BMCRE 437 var. (spear position); Calicó 1225 (this coin). EF, minor natural edge flaw. ($7500)

From the RLS Collection. Ex Stacks (29 April 1987), lot 1180; J. Hirsch (17 November 1913), lot 1243.

In CNG's office copy of the Hirsch catalogue, margin notations indicate this coin sold to Ratto for 230 Marks. Rodolfo Ratto (1866-1949) was one of the better known coin dealers of his day. He "entered in direct relations with the Royal House of Savoy, the Vatican Museum, Count Pappadopoli of Venice, the Bibliothèque Nationale, the British Museum, and a large number of foreign collectors and dealers" (Numismatic Circular 1950, vol. 58, no. 1, col. 671). The reverse type, showing Hadrian on horseback holding a spear, celebrates his military activity abroad, and his return to Rome.