My first coin of 2019: another anonymous quinarius

I won this coin in Triton XXII earlier this month. I fell in love with this coin as soon as I saw it and placed a relatively high prebid as prebidding closed, intending to possibly bid even higher during the live auction if need be. Fortunately on the day of live auction my coin attracted no further bids and I won it far lower than I expected (though I later learned one other CoinTalker tried and failed to bid on it due to technical issues).

This is a Crawford 45/2 series quinarius struck at an "uncertain mint"(per Crawford) but I suspect an Apulian origin from the hoards I've seen. CNG identified it as the more common 44/6 quinarius however the included Spink ticket correctly identified it so perhaps the cataloguer just overlooked it, but this coin has all the hallmarks of the Crawford 45 series, in particular the "ski slope nose" and three part helmet that are the easiest identifiers of this type.

I've always liked this particular series but what really made me fall in love with this example was the fine style of the dies, in my opinion some of the best for the type, along with the nearly perfect centering, strike and flan and the cabinet toning suggesting there's perhaps an old provenance to be found. One of my long term goals is to focus more on buying the best example I can afford for types where I have that luxury and I think this one certainly fits the bill.

Roman Republic AR Quinarius(16mm, 2.28 g, 12h). Anonymous. After 211 B.C. Uncertain(perhaps Apulian?) mint. Head of Roma right, wearing winged helmet ornamented with griffin's head and three-piece visor, earring an necklace; behind, V. Border of dots / Dioscuri on horseback riding right, each holding couched spear and wearing chlamys, cuirass and pileus surmounted by star; in relief in linear frame, ROMA. Line border. Crawford 45/2; Russo RBW 180; Sydenham 169.
Ex CNG Triton XXII, 1/9/2018, lot 787, ex Alan J Harlan collection, purchased from Spink & Son

As a final note, one thing that I still am not completely certain on is the "dot" above the uppermost lock of hair between the V and the back of the helmet. There are some examples of RR silver with a small "dot" under the bust and its exact meaning is unknown. In this case the dot does appear to be raised and we'll defined and I don't think it's die rust but I haven't found a die match exhibiting this feature yet. I'd be very interested to hear any other collectors' opinions on it.

As always, feel free to post anything relevant!

 

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Beautifull coin red_spork
The Gods were smiling on you on auction day. I was not as fortunate, my first choice went quadruple estimate/ my second the same/ then I ended up with my third option, it only went double estimate
On the Triton XIX "Adams Sale" I had really good luck, I got three fantastic coins for around estimates. It was just after the lunch break, so I think many potential bidders where late getting back to room.
John

 

Great buy, one of the best I've seen. Not sure what crawford number mine is probably the more common 44/6.
AR Quinarius, Rome around 211 BC, Sear 42, RSC-3, 2.3gm, toned.

 

Beautiful Quinarius @red_spork ! Very nice. Great EVERYTHING about this coin. I am very curious about the dot also. Perhaps a whim / embellishment? Dropped the tool, and cleaned it up with a nice dot? Or a code ("Hey, I made this! This is MY die")?

How about a Sestertius from this time? Everyone seems to think Sestertii were Orichalcum... However, for 200 years they were Silver, AND represented 2-1/2 Asses prior to the 141 retarrif of the Denarius to 16 Asses... IIS on the Sestertius means Two-Asses-and-a-Semis.


RR AR Sestertius After 211 BCE 12mm 1.0g Rome mint Roma r IIS - Dioscuri riding, stars in ex ROMA Sear 46 Craw 44-7 RSC 4

 

Red Spork, I was glad to meet you today and see this wonderful example of RRC 45/1. I sent you an email after we met today on this. I have not seen this artifact on any die of RRC 45/2. I'm not sure if it has any significance other than a die artifact, but the rare RRC 44/5 issue variety with dot below Roma's truncation is clearly different than the other varieties and no obverse or reverse die links are known to other varieties, suggesting a different mint location or time of minting. RRC 45 has significantly fewer dies and appears to be the product of a single issue.

But the coin itself is of the highest quality in all respects and one that I will see when I close my eyes tonight.

 

@Fugio1 it was great meeting you today as well and after spending a bit of time looking at other 45/2 dies as well as the dot issues in my photofile I think I agree. I can find dies that appear to be from the same hand and they don't have a dot so I suspect it is a die artifact as well.

 

Nice coin, Spork! A very nice example.

You have no idea how close you came to not winning that coin. Not by me...a story to be told at another time and by another person. I leave it to him should he choose to share it with you. Anyway, well done and congratulations.

C

 

I think I know who you're talking about unless you know 2 or more people who intended to bid on it. I got an email from him telling me how lucky I was. My prebid would still have beat his max bid but I certainly got a nice discount on it I think.

 

Then that's probably him. Weak bidder.

 

@Ancient Aussie

Indeed this is an RRC 44/6, but it is a very scarce variety. The quinarius is pictured in Crawford plate IX.21, and the denarius variety is described here: http://stevebrinkman.ancients.info/anonymous/index.html#44-5-IX-20

 

red_spark. As one who takes pride in knowing nothing whatsoever, in these matters (nor anything else !), I took the lazy option and looked some of it up. "Castor and Pollux (called the Dioscuri, meaning 'sons of Zeus'). Twin brothers, hatched from the eggs laid by LEDA after Jupiter (Zeus) in the shape of a swan had lain with her. They were renowned as warriors and were inseparable. They took part in the Calydonian boar hunt (See Meleager.) They were the patrons of the Roman order of equites. They are the 'heavenly twins', Gemini of the zodiac. They are also represented as the stars of good omen to ships."

 

That’s a beauty!

 

The Dioscuri are certainly an interesting pair. They appear on many early Roman Republic denarii, quinarii and sestertii and occasionally later coins as well and are thought to potentially be a reference to the Battle of Lake Regilius. Some later coins feature not the dioscuri themselves but their caps.

 

Hi. Looked up Dioskuri in a dictionary. n.pl. Castor and Pollux, as sons of Zeus. (Gr. Dios, gen. of Zeus, and koros (Ionian kouros), a son, a lad). - The Ionian connection is interesting to me. Last year I holidayed in Corfu, which is an Ionian island !

 

very kool coin..i've been bidding on a few Disocuri twin republicans but no cigar yet..

 

Awesome coin!

 

Thanks very much for the info on my coin, just a query if I may what are the features on my coin that make it scarce above the other 44/6 types?

 

Loads of useful info from Fugio 1, although - in my opinion - the pudding is somewhat over-egged. Anyone here, who has read every single word of it is certainly deserving of a numismatic medal !!!

 

@Bert Gedin -- You are not alone. Mostly I get a "who cares?" response when I describe the differences between the separate issues of these first anonymous coins of the denarius system. This is good for me because they rarely go for astronomical prices at auction.

 

@Ancient Aussie , Unfortunately there is not a short answer. There are six very distinct obverse styles consistently seen in the RRC 44 denarius/quinarius/Sestertius groups. These are illustrated in Crawford’s plates. Four of these are known to be earliest from hoard evidence, and they are die linked so we know they are from the same mint and time.

Your group 4 example is one of these earliest varieties. Yours is of the style in Crawford’s plate IX.31, and is an obverse die link to that coin. On two of these varieties Roma has unbound hair below the helmet neck flap as yours does. The more common “loose hair” style (group 3) consistently shows the helmet wing with a sharp angle at the “wrist” and feathers pointing downward. Your specimen has feathers pointing more back and upward. Specializing in this series, I see fewer of this variety than most of the others, and unusually, I see more denarii than quinarii. I would say the quinarii are at least extremely scarce. Crawford does not show sestertii for this variety in his plates but they do exist and are very rare.