Lot description: Commodus, (177-192 A.D.), AE sestertius, 28mm, (19.41 g), issued 185, obv. M COMMODVS ANT]ON AVG [PIV]S BRIT, laureate head of Commodus to right, rev. P M TR [P X IMP VII COS IIII P P], across S C, VICT BRIT (in exergue), Victory, winged, naked to waist, seated right on shields and arms, with stylus in right hand preparing to inscribe oval shield set on left knee. (S.5826, BMCRE IV p.800, 560, C.946, RIC III p.418, 452, cf.MIR 665). Light brown patination, weak legends otherwise fine or better, type is very rare.
Notes: The title suggests that Commodus was present at his father's victory over the Marcomanni. He mopped up the deserters in Gaul in a military campaign, and a revolt in Brittany was put down by two legions brought over from Britain. In Britain in 184, the governor Ulpius Marcellus re-advanced the Roman frontier northward to the Antonine Wall, but the legionaries revolted against his harsh discipline and acclaimed another legate, Priscus, as emperor. This coin commemorates [VICT BRIT] the success of the legions advancing to the Antonine wall in present day Scotland.