Watch List notes:

Hadrian. A.D. 117-138. AR denarius (18 mm, 3.12 g, 6 h). Anomalous ("Eastern") issue, ca. A.D. 125-128. HADRIANVS AVGVSTVS, laureate bust of Hadrian right, slight drapery on far shoulder / COS III, Victory standing facing, head right, raising hand to head and holding long palm branch. RIC -; BMC -; RSC -. Unpublished. Lightly toned, light porosity, scratches before face and on nose. Very fine.

From a private collection formed in Munich during the 1960s and 1970s.

The "Eastern" mint denarii of Hadrian are all quite rare. There are two large assemblage of types published, but unfortunately neither are comprehensive: BMCRE vol. II, pp. 372-81, ppl. 68-71, and the section on Hadrian's Imperial coinage at the Beast Coins website. With the exception of the small subset of Antioch mint issues, Metcalf prefers to call these non-Rome mint denarii of Hadrian "anomalous" as they do not follow the same agenda as Hadrian's cistophori (Hadrian's cistophori combine Roman legends on the obverse with local Greek types on the reverse, the purpose being "to restore federal government in the provinces and use the coinage as a tradition of the past functioning in a contemporary context" (Beastcoins.com). In addition to BMCRE and the Beast Coins website, anyone wishing to study these anomalous denarii further should consult both P. L. Strack, Untersuchungen zur römischen Reichsprägung des zweiten Jahrhunderts (3 vols. Stuttgart, 1931-1937), and the Michael Kelly Collection of Roman Silver Coins (Spink, 18 November 1997), lots 1033-1042.