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Roma Numismatics Ltd
E-Sale 36  27 May 2017
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Lot 608

Estimate: 200 GBP
Price realized: 500 GBP
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Trajan AR Denarius. Rome, AD 114-117. IMP CAES NER TRAIANO OPTIMO AVG GERM DAC, laureate and draped bust right / P M TR P COS VI P P S P Q R/ Trajan's column, surmounted with statue of emperor; at base, two eagles; bas reliefs on pedestal. RIC 356; Woytek 514v; RSC 284. 3.14g, 20mm, 7h.

Very Fine, highly lustrous.

This reverse type depicts Trajan's Column, one of the most visible and iconic monuments of ancient Rome that survives today. Built to commemorate the Dacian campaign, and using the spoils of war, it was completed in AD 113 and featured on the coinage of that year and the next.

The continuous sculptural frieze that decorates the column, which illustrates the major campaigns of the war, would have been visible from the balconies of the buildings at the northern end of Trajan's Forum, and therefore easier to read than they are today from ground level. The column was originally capped by a statue of the Emperor, though with this having disappeared during the medieval period a bronze statue of St. Peter was placed there in 1587 by Pope Sixtus V, and remains today.

After his death in AD 117, the Senate voted to place the ashes of Trajan and his wife Plotina in golden urns in the base of the column.
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