Pertinax, 193 Sestertius circa 193, Æ 31.1mm., 19.96g. Laureate head r. Rev. Liberalitas standing l., holding abacus and cornucopiae. C 25. RIC 18.

Rare. A bold portrait of fine style, dark tone, Very Fine/About Very Fine.

Ex CNG Mail Bid Sale66, 2004, 1527. (VF 2250$) and ex NAC sale 114, 2019, 1599.

In addition, winning bids of EEC clients for this coin are subject to a 5% fee on hammer price as a reimbursement for import duty paid to HMRC. Of the five men proclaimed emperor in the civil war that raged from 193 to 197, Helvius Pertinax was perhaps the most admirable and deserving. Born in north-west Italy the son of a timber merchant, Pertinax was a self-made man who abandoned a career in teaching to join the army. His talents must have been exceptional, for he gained powerful friends attached to the family of Marcus Aurelius, married the daughter of an ex-consul, and by his early 50s this son of a freedman was elected into the senate. In 175 he and another contender of the distant civil war, Didius Julianus, were both named suffect consuls. There seemed no limits to his capabilities, for he commanded a legion, governed Moesia Inferior, Dacia, Syria, Britain and Africa, and when the palace coup unfolded against Commodus on New Year’s Eve, 192, Pertinax was the urban prefect of Rome and had opened that year sharing the consulship with Commodus. With such stellar qualifications it is hardly surprising that Pertinax was chosen by the senate to replace Commodus. Being in such powerful positions within the capital, he was privy to all of the outrages of government, and during his 86 days as emperor he attempted to reform some of the most egregious abuses. These efforts inspired two coups against him – one that failed, and another that succeeded. The mercy he showed the conspirators the first time did not impress the praetorian guards, who also organized the second plot and murdered him after storming the palace. His father-in-law Flavius Sulpicianus may not have been an ally after all, for he openly competed with Didius Julianius when the guardsmen put the throne up for auction in arguably the most degrading episode in Roman history. The reverse of this sestertius shows Ops, the personification of wealth. It is an unusual choice for any emperor, and she was used only one other time, by Antoninus Pius. Here she may relate to events of the day since she holds grain ears and one of Pertinax’s first priorities was to travel to Ostia to oversee the grain supply; indeed he only rushed back to Rome upon learning the praetorian guards were attempting to replace him with the new Consul, Q. Sosius Falco.