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Research Coins: Feature Auction

 

Scarpus Plays the Field After Actium

Sale: Triton XI, Lot: 647. Estimate $2000. 
Closing Date: Monday, 7 January 2008. 
Sold For $3750. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Octavian. 31 BC. AR Denarius (3.30 g, 12h). Cyrene mint. L. Pinarius Scarpus, moneyer. AVGVR PONTIF, head of Jupiter Ammon right / IMP CAESAR/DIVI F in two lines across field, Victory standing right on globe, holding palm frond over left shoulder in left hand, and wreath tied with fillet in extended right hand. Crawford 546/4; RIC I 535; CRI 411; Sydenham 1281; RSC 125; BMCRE 690 = BMCRR Cyrenaica 4; BN 897. VF, toned, porosity, flan crack, a few scratches in field. Very rare.


Ex Jacquier FPL 17 (Autumn 1995), no. 381.

This is likely the first issue by Scarpus after defecting to the Caesarians. Though the name of the issuer is absent, probably because Scarpus was uncertain of Octavian’s attitude, it is clearly of Scarpus. To be on the safe side, Scarpus strikes this issue “in the name of his new commander-in-chief” (CRI, p. 248). The obverse features Octavian’s priestly titles of augur and pontifex.