Sale: Triton IX, Lot: 1252. Estimate $3000.  Closing Date: Monday, 9 January 2006.  Sold For $3500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

[Early Italian and Roman Issues] CAMPANIA. Late 4th century BC. Æ 17mm (4.54 g, 4h). Naples mint. Laureate head of Apollo right / RWMAIWN, forepart of man-headed bull right, star on flank. Crawford 1/1; Sydenham 51; Haeberlin pl. 35, 2; HR Italy 251. Good VF, green and brown patina with light green overtones. Very rare. ($3000)

This rare bronze, issued in the name of the Romans, has fascinated numismatists since the time of Eckhel. The mint responsible seems to be Neapolis at the time of the foedus aequum between that city and Rome in the opening stages of the Second Samnite War in 326. The Romaion issue fits comfortably in style and metrology with the prolific hemiobol bronze Neapoliteon issues of Neapolis dated to c. 325-320 (HN Italy 568-70). For an in depth chronological analysis and bibliography for this remarkable issue, see M. Taliercio Mensitieri, ‘Le emissioni romano-campane di bronzo’, in La monetazione romano-campana, Atti Convegno X, Napoli 18-19 giugno 1993 (Rome 1998), pp. 50-1. For the metrology of Neapolis, see M. Taliercio, ‘Il bronzo di Neapolis’, in La monetazione di Neapolis nella Campania antica, Atti Convegno VII del CISN, Napoli 2024 aprile 1980 (Naples 1986), pp. 219-373, especially p. 220 and A. Campana, ‘A proposito dell’obolo di bronzo’, in Panorama Numismatico 94 (1996), pp. 12-16.