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Author Topic: A possibly unpublished Trajan sest. in miserable condition  (Read 8084 times)

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Offline curtislclay

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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.  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.
Curtis Clay

Online mauseus

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Re: A possibly unpublished Trajan sest. in miserable condition
« Reply #1 on: May 11, 2008, 05:06:41 am »
Hi Curtis,

I have two left facing Trajan sestertii, both in my "Diverse Roman" gallery here on Forvm, one of which is the nude or semi nude heroic bust.

You have the advantage of examining your sestertius in the flesh as it were but I wonder if it is an example like mine where the figure is holding a branch over a modius, rather than the camel?


Trajan 98-117 AD
AE sestertius
Obv "........NERVAE TRAIANO AVG GER..........."
Laureate, nude "heroic" bust left.
Rev "SPQR OPTIMO PRINCIPI SC"
Ceres stg left holding corn ears and torch, modius to left
Rome mint
RIC 478

Regards,

Mauseus

Offline curtislclay

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Re: A possibly unpublished Trajan sest. in miserable condition
« Reply #2 on: May 11, 2008, 01:44:54 pm »
My deity is probably not Annona, because her left arm is pretty certainly by her side, not raised to clasp a scepter.

Given the rarity of Trajan's bust left sestertii, all of which I think are of the COS V period, 103-111, it should be possible to find an obv. die link for my coin!  The obv. die on your coin, however, seems different.

What is the height of the portrait on your coin, from bottom of bust to top of head?  The height of my portrait, which as I commented looks smaller than expected, is 24 mm.
Curtis Clay

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Re: A possibly unpublished Trajan sest. in miserable condition
« Reply #3 on: May 17, 2008, 04:58:55 am »
Hi,

Top of bust to bottom is 26mm. The coin weighs in at 20.8 grammes.

Regards,

Mauseus

Offline Rupert

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Re: A possibly unpublished Trajan sest. in miserable condition
« Reply #4 on: May 19, 2008, 06:47:01 am »
Curtis,

your coin was covered with a thick patina, which is still there in the field but has, as it seems, been completely chipped off on the edges. Since the patina is not on the surfaces, but the surfaces turn into patina, maybe your coin has lost two millimetres there?

Rupert
Ducunt volentem fata, nolentem trahunt.

Offline curtislclay

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Re: A possibly unpublished Trajan sest. in miserable condition
« Reply #5 on: May 19, 2008, 10:41:49 am »
Rupert,

Yes, the flan itself can easily have lost a couple of mm from corrosion around the edges.

However, the types too are a little smaller than expected on a sestertius, and this cannot have been caused by corrosion!
Curtis Clay

Offline curtislclay

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Re: A possibly unpublished Trajan sest. in miserable condition
« Reply #6 on: August 07, 2008, 11:30:40 pm »
P.-A. Besombes, in the new Paris catalogue of their coins of Trajan, pp. 19-20, lists all dies known to him with the bust left and bare chest seen from front.

For sestertii, he lists five such obv. dies, which are actually four, since his dies 3 and 4 are in fact the same die.

Mauseus' die is Besombes' die 1, of which Paris 512 and 516, pl. 26, posseses two fine specimens.  Paris 512 also has the same rev. type and same rev. die as Mauseus' example.

My obverse die is not among the four listed by Besombes, however!

Besombes, I think wrongly, accepts as authentic the Gnecchi sestertius that I illustrate above, and says that Vienna has a coin from the same obv. die, but rev. Trajan riding down enemy.  It may have been that rev. type which, in my opinion, was completely remade into the Basilica Ulpia type on the Gnecchi coin.
Curtis Clay

Offline curtislclay

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Re: A possibly unpublished Trajan sest. in miserable condition
« Reply #7 on: August 08, 2008, 01:43:33 am »
The tooler of the Gnecchi coin produced a clumsy "Basilica", and I just noticed that he goofed the legend too: instead of PRINCIPI on the right he wrote PRNCI, omitting the first I and leaving off PI at the end!

Here, from a CNG coin in CoinArchives, is what a real BASILICA VLPIA sestertius should look like.
Curtis Clay

Offline Schwami

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Re: A possibly unpublished Trajan sest. in miserable condition
« Reply #8 on: August 09, 2008, 01:14:58 pm »
Curtis, thanks for the news that the Bibliotheque Nationale de Paris has now published its next volume covering the coins of Trajan!  I will be ordering my copy this weekend!  :)
Lyndall J. Huggler

Offline curtislclay

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Re: A possibly unpublished Trajan sest. in miserable condition
« Reply #9 on: December 28, 2015, 05:27:32 pm »
The answer to this problem of 2008 was provided by Woytek's Trajan monograph of 2010.

My worn sestertius seems to be from the same dies as a hitherto unique coin in Verona, which was first published by Franziska Schmidt-Dick of the Numismatische Kommission, Austrian Academy of Sciences, in 1995: Woytek 454q, pl. 91, rev. ARAB ADQ type as I had suspected, obv. COS VI not COS V, so 112 AD, see picture below. The Verona coin weighs 30.24 g, so is obviously a full sestertius, indeed an overweight one; so my coin too was doubtless meant as a full sestertius, despite the slightly reduced size of the types.

According to Woytek's very comprehensive catalogue, most of Trajan's bust left coins were struck when he was COS V, that means 103 or 104 to 111.

Bust left coins of COS VI (112-117) known to Woytek:

This sestertius of 112, now known in two specimens.

A denarius of 114-6, Woytek 519o, three spec. recorded, at least two of which share the same dies.

A denarius of 116-7, Woytek 578q, two recorded, both from the same dies.
Curtis Clay

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Re: A possibly unpublished Trajan sest. in miserable condition
« Reply #10 on: December 28, 2015, 05:59:28 pm »
Congratulations Mr. Holmes!

It´s always fascinating how much there is to explore even for common emperors and mints.

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