Sale: Triton IX, Lot: 1576. Estimate $20000.  Closing Date: Monday, 9 January 2006.  Sold For $24000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

AURELIAN. 270-275 AD. AV Aureus (4.87 g, 6h). Mediolanum (Milan) mint. 1st emission, December 270-January 271 AD. IMP C D AVRE-LIANVS AVG, laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / PANN-O-NIAE, personification of Pannonia standing half-left, head turned right, wearing mantle and veil over peplos and himation, extending right hand and holding transverse legionary standard in left. RIC V -; BN pl. 75, 40 = MIR 47, 22i (O14/R150) = S. Estiot, "Aurélien : trois monnaies d'or inédites de l'atelier de Milan (270 A.D.)," BSFN vol. 45, no. 1 (January 1990), 7 (same dies); Calicó -; Hunter -; Cohen -. Extremely Fine with matte surfaces. Extremely rare, the second known example. ($20,000)

This extremely rare reverse type, part of Aurelian’s first issue of gold for distribution, manifestly honors the part played by the legions of Pannonia in Aurelian’s election to the purple on the death of Claudius II Gothicus in 270 AD. Aurelian was born of humble parents near Sirmium in Pannonia and at the age of twenty entered the military service, in which, because of exceptional ability and remarkable bodily strength, he acquired the nick-name ‘Manu-ad-Ferrum’. On the suicide of his rival Quintillus in late 270 AD Aurelian became sole ruler and immediately turned his attention to the continuing barbarian invasions. He defeated the Vandals in Pannonia, repulsed a dangerous Alemannic incursion into northern Italy, and then proceeded to Rome to commence the erection of extensive new walls to protect the city from further attacks.