Trajan sestertii with
bust left are
rare, so I decided to rescue this one from our
pick bowl!
The coin is also, for a
sestertius, of unusually small size: only 30 mm and 20.74 g, instead of the normal
sestertius dimensions under
Trajan of c. 33 mm and 25 g. The
portrait and
rev. type also look distinctly smaller than what one expects on a
sestertius of
Trajan, though larger than on a
dupondius or As. The first recorded
Roman imperial
tripondius? More likely just an unusually small
sestertius! The only
legend surviving is
S - C in
reverse field.
From what little one can see of the
rev. type, maybe it is the ARAB ADQVIS
type as shown below. The deity seems to be holding that unidentified conical object with her l.
arm, there is drapery hanging from her l.
arm at some distance from her body, and there are faint shapes at her feet which could be the
camel.
This
type occurs on Trajan's
sestertii with both
COS V and
COS VI in the
obv. legend, before and after
Trajan became
COS VI on 1 Jan. 112, but no
bust left
sestertius is recorded with either date.
The
obv. die is quite similar to that on a
COS V sestertius of
Trajan in the
Gnecchi collection in
Rome, though the
portrait is a couple of mm less high to judge from Strack's photo of it that I reproduce below. Maybe my coin too showed
COS V not VI.
The
Gnecchi coin doesn't
help with the
reverse type, since I think its
reverse has been entirely remade from some more ordinary
type into the desirable and very
rare BASILICA VLPIA! The
reverse looks remade, and this
Basilica type would be a surprise on a
COS V coin, since the
basilica was
part of Trajan's
Forum which was not dedicated until the day he assumed
his SIXTH consulship, 1 Jan. 112.Â
Strack lists only one other
COS V sestertius with the
Basilica reverse type, in BM, but in
BMC this coin is dismissed as being entirely remade on the
reverse, and is only mentioned in a footnote. On
aurei the
BASILICA VLPIA type only occurs with
COS VI obverses.