Among the Finest

Triton XIV, Lot: 599. Estimate $3000. Sold for $6500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Brutus. Spring-early summer 42 BC. AR Denarius (20mm, 3.73 g, 12h). Military mint traveling with Brutus and Cassius in the East. L. Sestius, proquaestor. Veiled and draped bust of Libertas right; L • SESTI • PRO • Q around / Tripod; securis to left, simpulum to right, Q • CAEPIO • BRVTVS • PRO • COS around. Crawford 502/2; CRI 201; Sydenham 1290; Kestner 3772; BMCRR East 41-5; RSC 11. EF. Sharp strike on a full flan, among the finest known.

Ex Triton VII (12 January 2004), lot 834.

This typically crudely struck coinage was issued for an army under the command of L. Sestius Quirinalis, son of a Pompeian commander, who joined forces with the tyrannicides. He nonetheless gained the pardon of Octavian after the downfall of Brutus, and later became a consul in 23 BC. Sestius is further known historically as the dedicatee of one of Horace's odes (Carmina 1, 4).