Denarius: An interesting day watching an auction half a world away.

I had a fun morning watching ASTA DECENNALIA, Numismatica Tintinna's electronic auction #61 (Asta Elettronica 61). I picked up a few coins, passed on a few and made a couple of observations.

Purchase #1 is a coin I have, twice, but this one is a fraction of the coin.

It is about 25% of a cast bronze Triens, TV-3 (not TV-3a). I guess that makes it a Uncia! The seller's description in Italian and my translation to English:

Repubblica Romana.

Frazione di Triente (fraction of a triens, I will call it an Uncia)

fulmine (thunderbolt) \ delfino (dolphin).

Cr.14\3.

TV 3a

Peso 30,71 gr.

MB. Patina.mo

TV lists two weight classes of this coin. The first 105 to 140 grams and the second is 80 to 107 grams. I think the piece looks like a quarter of the coin. That would put it mid-way in the heavier group. I will see how the coin looks on the two I have of this series.

Anonymous Æ Aes Grave Triens (or 1/3 of am As); the coin was cast in Rome (according to Crawford, Thurlow & Vecchi and Rutter) or Campania (according to Sydenham), the period of minting ranges from circa 289 BC for heavier coins to about 245 BC for lighter coins. The obverse has a thunderbolt and four pellets. The reverse has a Dolphin swimming right and below are four pellets. T&V comment that the thunderbolt is an attribute of Jupiter, the chief god of the Romans and the dolphin is an attribute of Neptune. The coin weighs 94.91 grams and has a diameter of 49 mm. A small piece of the coin is missing. The reverse is at 10:00 relative to the obverse. The coin was graded VF with a light brownish ‘Tiber’ patina and came from a private German collection. Attributions for the coin:

· Crawford, Roman Republican Coinage - 14/3 – Crawford gives the 14 series As a weight standard of 322 grams for this series. Three times 95 = 285, which is a bit below the weight standard, but well above the 267 gram average for the 85 examples of Cr 35/1 I found.

· Thurlow & Vecchi, Italian Cast Coinage – 3a - The weight of the coin places it in the later period by T&V and thus the “a”.

· The coin is not in Grueber, Coins of the Roman Republic in the British Museum. It is listed in BMC Italy and is on the British Museum web site.

· Sydenham, Aes Grave – 38; Coinage of the Roman Republic – 10

· Sear – 538

· Rutter, HN Italy 270

· ICC 27

· Haeberlin pp. 95-97, 1-160 pl. 39, 6-14

Similar to above but 96 grams vs 95 grams. This one has more of the original casting and much lower features.

I picked up a couple of struck Asses. Both are relatively light weight, at 24 & 29 grams, or less than the part of the cast piece above.

This anonymous struck bronze is 29 grams and 31 mm. I assume it is anonymous instead of having the symbols worn off. The seller called it a Cr-56/2 and I will say the same until I have it in hand. I probably would not buy this one by itself, but I had one coming already, so why not. It will be a good show and tell coin.

The dealer called this one SAX (Cr 180), but I think I see C.SAX (Cr 173). I can tell better with the coin in hand, but it may be so worn that 100% ID is not possible. This was another low priced coin that I bought because I already had one in the auction to share postage.

Roman Republican struck As

C·SAX, Rome 169 to 158 BC

Obv - Janus head, above, I

Rev. Prow r.; above, C·SAX ligate and before, I. Below ROMA.

Æ 33mm., 24g. Weight standard based on as of 31.5 grams.

Cr 173/1

BMCRR Rome 642

Babelon Clovia 6.

Sydenham 360

This is the coin I wanted most in the auction, and I won it! It is a Sextans struck over a Syracuse Poseidon / Trident bronze coin. I have examples of the over and under types, but a pic on file of the over-type only. The under-type pic below is from ACR. This coin's weight is heavier than most of the Sextans I found on line. There are several examples of over-struck coins in this series, including one I have that is shown at the bottom. It has a different combination of sides.

The obverse of the top coin has two dots, bot no dots on the reverse. This coin looks like the celator took extra effort to show the coin was a two dotter, see expanded pic.

Lot 1032

Repubblica Romana - Serie 'spiga di grano e KA'. ca 207-206 a.C. Sestante. Ribattuto. AE.

D/ Poseidone - Mercurio e ulteriore ribattitura da identificare.

R/ Tridente - Prua a destra sopra spiga di grano, davanti KA. Sotto ROMA.

Syd. 310d.

Cr. 69/6a. 6b …

Crawford assigns letters by what is before the prow:

· KA = a

· IC = b

· C = c

Peso gr 8,63.

Diametro mm. 22,5. BB-BB+.

Interessanti ribattiture. Buon esemplare per la tipologia. Patina verde.

The under-type is shown above thanks to a pic from Art Coins Roma.

Poseidone / Tridente

Sicily, Hieron II (275-215), Bronze, Syracuse, c. 275-215 BC; AE (g 6,52; mm 20; h 11); Diademed head of Poseidon l., dotted border, Rv. IEP-ΩNOΣ, ornamented trident; at sides dolphins, below, AΠ. Linear border. CNS II 194 R1 2; SNG Copenhagen 844; SNG ANS 964.