Rarest Caesar Denarius

Sale: Triton XII, Lot: 513. Estimate $20000.  Closing Date: Monday, 5 January 2009.  Sold For $28000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Julius Caesar. 44 BC. AR Denarius (3.97 g, 6h). Uncertain mint. Head of Venus right, wearing fillet, her hair collected into a knot behind / Trophy of Gallic arms, chariot at base on left, a shield, two spears and carnyx on right; CAESAR to left, IMP to right. Crawford 482/1; CRI 130 (Octavian); Sydenham 1016; Kestner -; BMCRR Spain 70-1; RSC 15. EF, light marks, traces of deposits on reverse. Extremely rare.

Only two examples have appeared at auction in recent history. This specimen is better than the one in Lanz 135 (21 May 2007), lot 462, which brought a hammer price of 38,000 Euros, and far superior to that in UBS 78 (9 September 2008), lot 1120. Previous to those, the last example to appear at auction seems to be the specimen from the V.J.E. Ryan Collection (Glendining, 2 April 1952), lot 1867.