Sale: CNG 79, Lot: 853. Estimate $150.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 17 September 2008.  Sold For $210. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Spurius Afranius. 150 BC. Æ As (26.38 g, 10h). Uncial standard. Rome mint. Laureate head of bearded Janus; I (mark of value) above / Prow of galley right; dolphin to right. Crawford 206/2 (citing 27 specimens in Paris); Sydenham 389. VF, green patina, minor roughness and deposits.

From Collection V.C.

Crawford argues against Sydenham’s assignment of this issue to Spurius Afranius. Since no example of this issue has a period or dot after the S in SAFRA, Crawford proposes that Safra should be considered the moneyer’s cognomen. The name Safra is otherwise unknown related to coinage in this period.