CNG 88, Lot: 1132. Estimate $300. Sold for $500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Anonymous. 209-208 BC. Æ As (32mm, 16.85 g, 6h). Uncial standard. Canusium mint(?). Laureate head of Janus; – (mark of value) above, CA below / Prow of galley right; – (mark of value) above, CA to right. Crawford 100a; Sydenham 309a. VF, attractive red-brown patina, areas of weak strike. Rare.

The rapid decline in the weight standard of the Roman Republican bronze coinage, occasioned by Rome's military catastrophes at the hands of the Carthaginian Hannibal in the early stages of the Second Punic War, was finally halted by the enactment of the sweeping currency reform of circa 211 BC. For the first time, asses were issued as struck coins in place of the cast aes grave pieces, thus completing the process which had begun about six years before with the introduction of struck fractional denominations. The obverse type of Janus, god of auspicious beginnings, had became standard on the as about 225 BC and at the same time the reverse type for all bronze denominations was standardized as the prow of a galley. The mark ‘CA’ probably indicates that it was struck at the Apulian city of Canusium.