Dietro
Traiano e il Circo Massimo
12.1.2011
Il sesterzio, pulito e rifotografato, è in stato posto in vendita all'asta del 9 gennaio 2011 da "Gemini Numismatic Auctions" al valore stimato di per 5000 USD (v. link). Price Realized: US$3500.

Lot# 762Estimate: US$5000 Sestertius  Trajan. 98-117 AD. Sestertius, 23.87g. (7h). Rome, c. 104 AD. Obv: IMP CAES NERVAE TRAIANO AVG GER DAC P M TR P COS V P P Bust laureate right with fold of cloak on front shoulder and behind neck. Rx: SPQR OPTIMO PINCIPI (sic, R omitted) around, S C in exergue, Circus Maximus, showing front wall with large entrance arch on right surmounted by facing quadriga, and eleven smaller arches with square windows or niches in the wall above them; back wall divided into two rows of rectangular sections, with a small arch in each of the lower sections; a four-columned temple is also located in the back wall, just left of the obelisk rising from the spina; at right end of back wall, the top of another entrance arch surmounted by a quadriga; at the center of the curving left end of the circus, a triumphal arch surmounted by statue of emperor in quadriga; in the arena, seen just above the front wall, spina with turning posts at ends, obelisk in middle, plus Cybele on lion and another indistinct object on left and apparatus with dolphins for numbering laps on right; finally to right of spina, two uncertain forms rising above the front wall, possibly the patron of the games crowning the leaping horses of the winning charioteer, or an arch bearing a second device for numbering the laps and an uncertain standing figure. Cf. Paris 220 pl. 12 (same obv. die). BM 853 note. C 546 (60 Fr.). RIC 571. This coin has dark olive patination. Some isolated obverse and reverse pitting and a patch of red encrustation in the field above the Circus Maximus. The Circus itself shows great detail. Untouched as it came from the earth many decades ago. Aside from the isolated pitting, this coin is a Bold VF.

A famous reverse type, apparently commemorating Trajan's construction of five thousand additional seats in the circus by moving and heightening the building's western wall, the very wall which is shown as the front wall in the coin type. Apparently unpublished with the omitted letter in reverse legend, PINCIPI instead of PRINCIPI; such errors are very unusual on coins struck at the mint of Rome under the earlier emperors. The rendering of the details of the reverse type is somewhat more sketchy than normal, for example there is no head of Sol atop the small temple to the left of the obelisk and that same temple does not interrupt the line indicating the top of the back wall of the circus, which can instead be seen continuing between the columns of the temple. Nevertheless this must be an official reverse die, just somewhat unskillfully executed, since the same obverse die of our coin was also used with at least two other reverse dies of ordinary official style, one showing the Circus Maximus type (Paris 220, pl. 12), and the other showing Victory inscribing VIC DAC onto a shield set atop a palm tree (NFA XVI, 1985, lot 420).
Dietro