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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;red_spork, post: 2792333, member: 74282&quot;]...and I&#039;m ecstatic! Up until recently, one area that was completely unrepresented in my collection was early Italian cast bronze, commonly referred to as &quot;aes rude&quot;, &quot;aes grave&quot; and &quot;aes signatum&quot;. This gap was not due to any lack of interest on my part, on the contrary, a significant stumbling block has been the Italian MOU which restricts the import of examples of these early Italian and Roman types to those with either an Italian export certificate or pre-2011 provenance. Though this law does not restrict domestic sales, I strive the meet its requirements for these types just as a bit of additional insurance for when my collection inevitably goes across the auction block. When I saw this coin in the most recent Triskeles auction with provenance to a CNG sale in 2005 and what I felt was a fairly reasonable opening and estimate, I knew that I wanted it, so I was thrilled when the hammer dropped and my bid came out on top.</p><p><br /></p><p>The cast uncia I&#039;m sharing today comes from the earliest of cast coins made in Rome circa 280-265 B.C. and features an astragalos. If you&#039;re unfamiliar with the term astragalos or its plural astragaloi, this refers to the knucklebone or ankle-bone of a sheep, commonly used as a gaming piece in a game similar to modern-day jacks and also in divination. While the larger denominations of the as and semis featured gods such as Apollo and Minerva, the smaller denominations like the sextans, uncia and semuncia featured devices based on the earlier cast bronze seashells, astragaloi and acorns, respectively, which are commonly referred to today as &quot;aes signatum&quot;. The Romans also put pellets and other symbols of value on these coins to aid their use in trade. While they aren&#039;t much to look at, these coins are in my opinion an essential part of any Roman Republic coin collection as they tell the story of the institution of Roman coinage. For a better discussion of early Roman monetary history I refer those interested to <a href="http://andrewmccabe.ancients.info/EarlyMoney.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://andrewmccabe.ancients.info/EarlyMoney.html" rel="nofollow">Andrew McCabe&#039;s page on early money in Rome</a> which provides both good textual information as well as excellent illustrated examples.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]648957[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Roman Republic Æ cast uncia(27 mm, 25.52 g), anonymous, 280-265 B.C., Rome mint. Astragalos(sheep knucklebone) seen from above; • / •. Crawford 14/6; Vecchi ICC 31; HN Italy 273; Thurlow-Vecchi 6a; Haeberlin plate 40, 19</p><p><br /></p><p>Ex Triskeles 20/VAuctions 325, 6/30/2017, lot 513, ex CNG E-Auction 115, May 25 2005, lot 328</p><p><br /></p><p>As always, feel free to post anything relevant[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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