Today I received my absolutely stunning Half Litra I won at Heritage a while back. When I made a post the same day I won it, some very interesting provenance for the coin also surfaced ( thanks to @red_spork ). It turns out it was part of the Goodman collection and the collection of Virgil Brand (1862-1926). I am currently going through Brands ledgers he kept that are uploaded by the ANS to see if I can find provenance going even further back. I'm very very happy with this purchase as it is also one of the absolutely finest known specimens of the type. Anonymous. Ca. 235-231 BC. Æ Half-Litra (12mm, 1.37 g, 7h). Rome mint. Obverse: Head of Roma or Minerva(?) right, wearing Phrygian helmet. Reverse: Dog standing right, left forepaw raised in pointing stance; ROMA in exergue. Reference: Crawford 26/4. Provenance: Heritage Auctions, Weekly auction 231923 (29 May 2019), Ex Goodman collection, Triton I (2 December 1997), lot 842; Ex Virgil Brand (1862-1926) collection, Part VII (Sotheby's , 25 October 1984, lot 478 (part of). From the Triton I cataloge:
Lovely coin and provenance! I wonder about the "half litra?" designation though, was that a denominational system they used at the time?
That's a handsome coin , especially considering its tiny size, & a Virgil Brand provenance doesn't get any better .
Most likely not, they're called "half-Litra", "ae unit", "half unit", not sure what they would have been called back then. They did use "Litra" for the larger denomination in the same series it seems though.
Yes, it will most likely take some time to localize it as Brands had so many coins, it's fun going through them though
