Are y'all tired of the Second Punic War yet? Hopefully not! I finally got around to photographing two of the bronzes I got in yesterday and thought I'd share. The first will not win any beauty contests, but is an extremely rare(Crawford only knew of a single example!) semis, likely overstruck and somewhat underweight for the type, but it is a die match to other known examples. It is also from the Andrew McCabe collection. Roman Republic Æ Semis(18.688g, 30mm). Anonymous, 215-212 BC. Rome mint. Laureate head of Saturn right, S behind/Prow of galley right, S above, ROMA below. Russo p. 140, 2 and pl. 16, 10 (same dies); McCabe Anonymous A1.Sm.2; cf. Crawford 41/6e. Ex. Andrew McCabe. This next coin is an uncia struck in Sicily during the Siege of Syracuse. The grain ear/corn ear is the standard mintmark of Sicilian bronzes of this period and there are actually multiple similar series with grain ears. This one is also overstruck, likely on a Sicilian bronze. I was unable to capture it in the photos, but this coin actually doesn't have a black patina but a very dark green patina with a few small reddish splotches. Roman Republic Æ Uncia(21.0 mm, 6.43 g, 11 h). Anonymous. 214-212 B.C. Sicilian mint. Helmeted head of Mars right; pellet behind / ROMA, Prow of galley right; ROMA and grain ear above, pellet below. Crawford 42/4
Add me to LOVING the second most of all!!! Terrific coins 'Red' !!! BTW: I have a modest UNCIA on bid at the moment---almost as nice an obverse, but a far inferior reverse... Congrats again!!!
Good luck! I actually got really lucky with this one in a previous Agora auction and got it for about 2/3 of my max bid. I was pretty surprised by this, but the photo was not perfect so maybe that kept he price down. I'm hoping to score one more bronze myself in the upcoming CNG auction of the remainder of the RBW collection but I haven't yet decided which one to focus on.