Divus Trajan AR Denarius. Antioch, AD 118. DIVVS TRAIANVS PATER AVGVSTVS, laureate bust to right / IMP HADRIA[N DIVI] NER TRAIAN OPT FIL, Hadrian standing to left, sacrificing over lighted altar; REST in exergue. RIC II.3 2963 (same dies); BMCRE p. 244, *; Woytek, The pious son. On the restored denarius issue signed by Hadrian, NC 178 (2018) p. 173-175; Strack -; BN -; RSC 663. 1.93g, 19mm, 6h.

Very Fine. Excessively Rare; the only Divus Trajan denarius offered at auction since 1864.

From the GK Collection.

This incredible rarity is either the second or third known example of the type, the first being in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, the second identified in Woytek (2018) - that second example, formerly from the Michelet d'Ennery and Pascal-François-Joseph Gosselin collections, is currently untraced and no photographs of it can be found, therefore definite attribution of the present coin to Woytek specimen 2 cannot be made and it could thus be an additional third example. However if evidence comes to light to associate this coin with Woytek specimen 2, its impressive provenance would stretch back to the when it was in the Michelet d'Ennery Collection and described by Thomas Mangeart in 1763. Given the extraordinary rarity of the type it is not inconceivable that this could be the long-lost d'Ennery-Gosselin specimen.