Featured My Centerpiece: Ides of March denarius

In school, we all learned about Brutus’ assassination of Julius Caesar. For me, it was a compelling story, further enhanced by the reading of Shakespeare’s play which told of the events of the Ides of March. However, my deeper fascination with it came when I began collecting ancient coins, learning that, fortunately for historians and collectors alike, Brutus minted a coin commemorating this turning point in Western history.

It’s hard to argue with the #1 ranking given to it by a consortium of collectors and dealers in the “100 Greatest Ancient Coins” book published by Harlan Berk. The trouble with this type is that it’s very hard to find in good condition and regardless of the condition, its popularity drives up the price.

I am extremely fortunate to have been able to acquire a solid-silver example of this historic type. It’s graded nearly EF and considerably better in hand and in my photos than the auction house’s poorly lit images showed. Around 80 examples are known, 30 of which reside in museums, with many of the remaining coins available to private collectors are in extremely poor condition or corroded due to the impure silver in which they were struck in Brutus’ moving mint.

The obverse bears a portrait of Brutus, the most famous of all assassins. The imagery on the reverse of the coin proclaims that the tyrant Julius Caesar is dead and includes the date of the assassination (EIDibus MARtiis, the Ides of March, the 15th of March, 44 BC). The daggers represent Brutus and Cassius, the two leaders of the uprising against Caesar. The daggers surround a liberty cap as a reminder that Caesar was killed in the name of liberty, freeing the Roman people.

This coin is certainly the centerpiece to my collection, and I’ll be posting a more detailed historical write-up soon, accompanied with some other contemporary issues.

Marcus Junius Brutus, Assassin of Caesar and Imperator (44-42 BC). AR denarius (3.73 gm). Mint moving with Brutus in northern Greece, L. Plaetorius Cestianus, magistrate, late summer-autumn 42 BC. BRVT IMP L. PLAET. CEST., bare head of Brutus right, wearing slight beard / EID MAR, pileus (cap of liberty) between two daggers. Crawford 508/3. Cahn 7a (same dies). CRI 216. RSC 15. RCV 1439

 

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Wow wow wow! Congratulations

Okay, now everybody post their Eid Mars

 

Holy grail of romans, congrats!

 

An extraordinary coin, truly museum worthy.
Thanks for posting this stunning piece of history.

 

ancientjoe has officially won cointalk.




good game everyone.

 

Nicer than most I recall seeing offered. I gather you trust Lanz. What is the mark behind the neck? Does that identify that obverse die and is known on other examples?

 

Congrats! Doesn't get more historic than this one.

 

Thanks! It was certainly a case of "trust but verify" I had many expert eyes over this coin to verify its legitimacy. The mark behind the neck is a die crack, as is the dot in front of Brutus' forehead. The portrait is in a rather high relief which may have contributed to these, and a couple of the other known examples are from similar die states.

 

Outstanding!! Truly, one of the most dreamed acquisitions for Ancient's collectors. CONGRATULATIONS!

 

Ancient Joe, what can I say besides...a heart felt congratulations!!!!!
They are the Time-travelers we are but the keepers. What a truly outstanding piece of history to be the keeper of!
I held one at the NYINC show. I very much enjoyed the experience. Thank you for sharing yours here.

 

Beautiful coin . Does anyone know about how many there are of these , as I thought they were quite limited ?

 

The closest I've ever been to one of these was one hundred feet. It was at the Summer Seminar and I missed it by ten minutes! TEN MINUTES!!!!!!!

You have no idea how hard it was to get those ski masks on campus...

 

Congratulations AJ! After chasing one for so long it must be a relief to finally have one. I am curious if with so much research put in to the coin did you see examples come up to auction that had faults you just couldn't look past?

You also mentioned it was high relief. Is it a high enough high relief to qualify for a cool sideways shot?

 

Congratulations on this acquisition! One of the best reverses on an Ides of March that I've seen. I had my suspicions that this coin might be making an appearance in your collection and on this site.

Had you considered the Eid Mar denarius at the Goldberg auction as well? You had mentioned a concern about the porosity of this latter coin, and I assume that this coin's density doesn't exhibit any porosity issues?

For the past few months I've been noticing a theme to your collection, which I would characterize as "historically significant coins." These would include a structure (Colosseum), an event (Ides of March), artistic quality, distinctive reverse, age/era of coin. Would this characterization be accurate?

 

Not too shabby for a coin without animals!! (congrats)

 

Shock and awe! What TIF said.

I was going to post a new coin today but I think I'll wait. Till August. Of 2015.

 

Heck , I was admiring the coin so much , I didn't read your post , congrats .

 

A great example.

 

Thanks! I was indeed sold on this coin by its reverse. While the obverse could be better centered, I don't mind it either and find Brutus' portrait relatively attractive, at least by imperatorial standards.

I did consider the Goldberg coin but was strongly advised to pass on it. While it has exceptional detail, the porosity was considered unforgivable by my dealer and other experts I consulted, and my own tastes tend to agree. Their image made it look considerably nicer than it did in hand: the coin looked shinier than a brand new dime. Some were saying it was recently plated over with silver to obscure parts of the porosity.

It all worked out for the best in any event, as the winning bidder was one of the billionaire collectors who will buy anything at any price (and outbid me on several other lots at the Goldberg sale). Lanz was far less attended, with only a handful of people in the room versus a packed house at Goldberg.

I wasn't able to see my coin in-hand before buying it but was pleasantly surprised by its metal quality. All of the Eid Mars were struck with slightly base silver and exhibit some degree of porosity but mine is much more solid than most, only seeing some slight porosity under strong magnification rather than nearly at arms length with the Goldberg coin.

However, in looking at the catalog image from Lanz, my coin looks considerably more porous than it does in hand, which was a bit perplexing. After some experimentation, I was able to replicate this by taking my images and applying a strong Photoshop "Sharpen" filter to them, which confirms what I've seen in some other coins I've bought from Lanz.

The acquisition of this coin was certainly the largest numismatic rollercoaster I've been on, considering the extremely strong price realized for the preceding very poor NAC example and difficult to anticipate auction fever.

Precisely - I am indeed trying to collect at an intersection of artistry and history, with the end goal to tell the story of Western history through coinage. I'm also attempting to have a fairly evenly distributed collection, avoiding over-focusing on certain emperors or eras. This is proving to be a bit difficult as I have a dozen coins of Augustus on my wantlist.

 

Thanks! There were indeed several examples which I couldn't justify bidding on, and a some others which I would love to own. I'm grateful that mine lands on the upper end of the spectrum of known examples - not the finest known but a solid coin which doesn't look "wrong" compared to the rest of my collection.

I did consider bidding on the NAC coin which was sold two weeks prior to mine, but I was only willing to progress slightly over the estimate (as I was of the opinion that any Eid Mar would be better than none).

(For those who aren't familiar with it, here's the NAC example)


However, in hindsight, I would have really disliked it and would be immediately looking for an upgrade. Watching it sell for $160K was very disconcerting to me as I was attempting to determine the relative value and expected price of the Goldberg and Lanz coins following it.

I don't think it's quite high relief enough for a side-on shot, unfortunately, although I'll still give it a try the next time I have it in hand.