Very Rare Portrait Issue of the Proconsul Thorius Flaccus

Sale: CNG 78, Lot: 1268. Estimate $300.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 14 May 2008.  Sold For $2750. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BITHYNIA, Nicaea. Augustus. 27 BC-AD 14. Æ 23mm (5.90 g, 12h). Thorius Flaccus, anthypatos (proconsul). Struck circa 25 BC. Bare head of Thorius Flaccus right / Draped bust of Juno Lanuvia right; monograms to left and right. RPC 2029.5 (this coin; illustrated); Weiser, Nikaia -; RG 19. VF, brown surfaces, light overall porosity. Very rare.

From the Patrick Villemur Collection. Ex Spink/Galerie des Monnaies (15 February 1977), lot 231.

Thorius Flaccus served as proconsul of the province of Bithynia under Augustus. He is only known from his coin issues at Nicaea (RPC 2027-30) and Nicomedia (RPC 2062-3). M. Grant, in FITA (p. 384), listed his dates in office as 29-28 BC, but this was based on an assumed similarity in portrait with a cistophorus minted in 28 BC, which has now been discounted (see RPC p. 337).