COINS OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.
ANTONINUS PIUS, AD 138-161. Aureus, 148-149. AV 7.34 g. ANTONINVS AVG - PIVS PP TR P XII Bar-headed, draped and cuirassed bust r. Rev. C-OS - IIII Aequitas, wearing long dress, standing facing, head turned l., holding cornucopiae in her l. hand, scales in her outstretched r. hand. BMC 94, 648; C. 236; RIC 48, 177c.
Excellent style and practically as struck

Provenance:
From an old Swiss collection started in the 19th century
The Viscount G. Ponton d'Amécourt (2825-1888), Trilport/Paris collection
Auction Rollin & Feuardent, Paris 25-30 April 1887, 272.

Inventor, polymath, numismatist, aerospace pioneer – many such terms have been used to describe the Vicomte Gustave-Louis-Marie de Ponton d’Amécourt (1825-1888), the creator of one of the first prototypes of the helicopter and the first to use the now ubiquitous term in 1863. He was close friends with world-famous novelists Victor Hugo and Jules Verne, and was a primary inspiration for one of Verne’s novels, Robur le Conquérant, in which the main character dreams of overtaking d’Amécourt in the skies with his helicopter-powered flying ship, the Albatross. As the founder of the Société française de numismatique et d'archéologie, the Vicomte displayed his magnificent coin collection at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1878 alongside such luminaries as Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell. The finest of these gold coins were sold at Rollin et Feuardent in 1887, including our lots 174 and 179.