Roman Imperial: Sabina (AD 128-136/7). AV aureus (21mm, 7.25 gm, 6h). NGC AU★ 5/5 - 4/5, Fine Style....

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Exquisite and Fine Style Sabina Aureus, Rare Die Pair

Sabina (AD 128-136/7). AV aureus (21mm, 7.25 gm, 6h). NGC AU★ 5/5 - 4/5, Fine Style. Rome, ca. 128-129 AD. SABINA AVGVSTA-HADRIANI AVG•P•P•, draped bust of Sabina left, wearing double stephane, hair elaborately coiled atop head / Vesta enthroned left, veiled, Palladium in outstretched right hand, scepter cradled in left arm. Calicó 1421 (same dies). RIC II.3, 2485 (same dies). British Museum specimen (same dies). The elaborate yet graceful portraiture is delicately rendered on brilliant surfaces. A truly stunning example of an already rare type. Five examples are known from this die pair, with the present coin being the finest.

Ex MDC Monaco, Auction 15 (23 October 2024), lot 155; Isar Collection (Roma Numismatics, Auction XXIII, 24 March 2022), lot 975.

Vibia Sabina was the daughter of Matidia, the favorite niece of the emperor Trajan. Sabina married the 24-year-old Hadrian in AD 100, marking him out as the likely successor to the throne. Hadrian and Sabina's 36-year marriage remained childless and the union appears to have been coldly cordial at best. Sabina was not formally named Augusta, or Empress, until AD 128, perhaps to coincide with Hadrian receiving the title of Pater Patriae from the Senate. She accompanied Hadrian on many of his famous travels. Although Hadrian engaged in several affairs, he frowned on Sabina's extramarital friendships. In AD 122 he dismissed two courtiers for being overly familiar with her; one of these was the historian Suetonius. Sabina's close friend, the poetess Julia Balbilla, accompanied the royal couple to Egypt in AD 130, where she recorded their presence by inscribing five stanzas on the Colossi of Memnon in Thebes. Both Sabina and Balbilla were thus probably present when Hadrian's boy lover, Antinous, drowned in the Nile, plunging the emperor into extravagant grief. The tragedy seemed to kill Hadrian's wanderlust, and he and Sabina returned to their lavish villa in Tivoli. Sabina died late in AD 136 or early the following year, probably of natural causes (although there were inevitable rumors of poisoning), and Hadrian ordered her deification.

Erratum: updated pedigree information.

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