GOLDEN

Issue: AD 125-128,  Obv/ HADRIANVS AVGVSTVS, laureate head r., with traces of a dress on l. shoulder,  R/ COS III, Hadrian on horseback r. with spear on the right, Mint of Rome, Bibl. Ref. R.I.C., 187d; Cohen, 414/Fr.40; Calico, 1224;  Metal: AV, gr. 7.12, Dia.: mm. 20.24. BB

PROVENANCE
Bolaffi, Turin;
private collection, Rome.

Below is an extract from the "Expert Appendix to the Bolaffi Quality Certificate" no. 248 of 07/03/2018” attached to this lot:


… The legend communicates only that Hadrian, at the time of minting of this coin, had received the post of consul three times; from this we do not obtain any precise indication for the dating of the issue, since the consulship was attributed to Hadrian for the third and last time in 119 AD. C. and therefore the date of the minting would be compatible with the entire period from that year to 138 AD, the date of his death. However, the analysis of the emperor's coin portraits indicates that this type of portrait dates back to 125 AD, the date of his return from a four-year journey in the provinces of the Empire, while the honorific title of Father of the Homeland, absent from the legend , was accepted by him in 128 AD. and appears on the next coinage. Consequently, the minting of this coin can be traced back to the interval between the two dates indicated. 
As for the representation, one can only observe that in it Hadrian appears in a warrior attitude, as if he were being attacked by an enemy, which is not reflected in the entirely peaceful reasons that prompted him to undertake the four-year journey mentioned above. The apparent contradiction is explained by the fact that for the Romans war was the normal condition of existence and therefore, if the emperor was to be represented on a journey, he could only be represented as a military commander at the head of his troops . …

The present lot cannot be exported from Italy.