ROMAN. Antoninus Pius. A.D. 138-161. Bronze As (9.54g). Rome mint, or possibly a mint in Britain. Struck A.D. 154-155. Laureate head right / Britannia seated left on rock, propping head on one hand and resting the other on the rock, in attitude of mourning; to left, large round shield with central spike and transverse vexillum projecting upward to left. RIC III 934. gVF. Scholarly opinion remains divided as to whether the BRITANNIA asses of Antoninus Pius were actually struck in the Roman province of Britannia. The Standard Catalogue of British Coins, 45th edition (2010), p. 68, 646 note, records that many examples of this type have been recovered in significant numbers on Romano-British sites, most notably from Coventina's Well at Carrawburgh fort on Hadrian's Wall. This distribution raises the intriguing possibility that the series may have been produced by a temporary mint operating in Britain. At the same time, the engraving is of consistently regular style, indicating that, even if struck locally, these coins were almost certainly produced from regular Roman dies brought specially to Britain for this purpose. Our specimen is most likely finer than all other known examples of this interesting type, being exceptionally well centred, with full legends and an attractive light patina. It is clearly superior to the two most recent comparanda, CNG Auction 592, lot 493 (30 July 2025), hammered USD 1,200, and Leu Auction 29, lot 2076 (24 February 2024), hammered CHF 950.

Estimate: AUD 1000