Crispina. Augusta, AD 178-182. Æ Sestertius (29.5mm, 25.02 g, 11h). Rome mint. Struck under Commodus. Good VF.

CNG Feature Auction 132
Lot: 806. Estimated: $ 500

Roman Imperial, Bronze, Coin-in-Hand Video

Sold For $ 850. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

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Crispina. Augusta, AD 178-182. Æ Sestertius (29.5mm, 25.02 g, 11h). Rome mint. Struck under Commodus. CRISPINA AVG IMP COMMODI AVG, draped bust right / Salus seated left, resting elbow on chair and feeding out of patera a serpent coiled around and rising from altar to left. RIC III 672b (Commodus); MIR 18, 18-6(a); Banti 17. Good VF. Rare obverse legend.

Ex John Wright Collection, purchased from Freeman & Sear, August 2003; Triton IV (5 December 2000), lot 597; Numismatica Ars Classica K (30 March 2000), lot 1890.

Bruttia Crispina was the daughter of Gaius Bruttius Praesens, an influential Roman nobleman from Lucania. Her marriage to the teenaged Commodus was arranged in AD 178 by his father, Marcus Aurelius, to shore up support among the Roman gentry. Crispina was a legendary beauty but this probably had little effect on the egocentric Commodus, who took a succession of lovers of both sexes. Her inability to produce an heir led Commodus to tire of her; accordingly, she was charged with adultery and banished to the island of Capri in AD 188, where she was later executed. It is sometimes asserted she died much earlier in the reign, after the conspiracy of Lucilla in AD 182, but this is due to a faulty reading of the main sources for the era, the Historia Augusta and Cassius Dio. Indeed, inscriptions record her as still being empress in the late AD 180s. Her coinage is not as extensive as that of previous empresses, probably due to her husband's indifference.

The final winners of all CNG Feature Auction 132 lots will be determined at the live online sale that will be held on 18-19 May 2026.

CNG Feature Auction 132 – Session Three – Lot 588-888 will be held Tuesday morning, 19 May 2026 beginning at 9:00 AM ET.

Winning bids are subject to a 22.5% buyer's fee for bids placed on this website and 25% for all others.

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