Sale: CNG 73, Lot: 887. Estimate $300.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 13 September 2006.  Sold For $590. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Trajan. AD 98-117. Æ Quadrans (3.03 g, 7h). Pannonian mines issue. Struck circa AD 98-102. IMP TRAIANO AVG GER DACICO TR P COS V P P, laureate head right / METALLI VLPIANI PAN, Aequitas standing left, holding scales and cornucopia. Cf. RIC II 710 (for obverse) and 706 (for reverse type). Good VF, green patina. Rare.

The obverse legend is unlisted for the Pannonian mines issue. Under Trajan and Hadrian several series of bronze quadrantes were struck in the names of the imperial mines in Noricum, Dalmatia, Pannonia, and Moesia (Dardania). These operations supplied metal for the mint at Rome, and perhaps were the sites of workshops to produce the “Mines” coinage for local circulation or as donatives. Others theorize that this “Mines” coinage was struck at Rome itself, and served some unidentified function, much as the contemporary 'nome' coinage struck at Alexandria in Egypt. Known find spots would seem to favor the former theory. Whatever the circumstances, these pieces saw limited use, and except for one rare type struck by Marcus Aurelius, were not issued during any other period.