Trajan Æ Sestertius. Rome, AD 112-114. IMP CAES NERVAE TRAIANO AVG GER DAC P M TR P COS VI P P, laureate and draped bust to right / PORTVM TRAIANI, aerial view of Trajan's hexagonal harbour at Ostia, with entrance at bottom, buildings and colonnades surrounding the harbour, and three ships anchored within; SC below. RIC II 632; C. 306 var. (bust type); BMCRE 770 corr. (obv. legend); Woytek 470v (same rev. die); Nudelman Numismatica - CIP Invest Ltd, Auction 10, 99 (same rev. die) = NAC 64, lot 1164 (same rev. die). 24.31g, 33mm, 6h.

Extremely Fine. Very Rare; an outstanding example of this important and sought-after reverse type.

From the inventory of a central European dealer.

The first proper harbour at Ostia was excavated under Claudius and finished in AD 64, and became the main trading centre for goods entering Rome from the western half of the Empire while Puteoli, on the Bay of Naples, continued to receive shipments from the east. However the harbour silted up over time, and so Trajan ordered the construction of a new basin, designed in hexagonal form and behind the original harbour, to offer better protection. Finished in AD 113, Trajan's new harbour at Ostia proved so popular that the the grain fleet from Alexandria in Egypt sailed to Ostia instead of Puteoli, and in the course of the second century Ostia became the main harbour of Rome for goods from the entire Empire.