279, Lot: 313. Estimate $150. Sold for $320. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

L. Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus and Q. Servilius Caepio. 100 BC. AR Denarius (18mm, 3.91 g, 11h). Rome mint. Laureate head of Saturn right; uncertain symbol behind / Two quaestors seated left between two stalks of grain. Crawford 330/1a; Sydenham 603; Calpurnia 5. Good VF, attractively toned.

From the Bruce R. Brace Collection. Purchased from the Hughes Collection in 1952.

BMCRR and Kestner call this symbol a wheel, while Crawford sees a hare. The device seems more complex than either. The known symbols of 330/1a form a coherent group: bow, arrow and trident; either straightforward weapons or attributes of the Olympians. 330/1b is more problematic: star, crescent, wheel(?) and monogram. The star and crescent suggest an astrological component, with both probably referring to the aerarium Saturni, a reduction in the cost of state grain distributions proposed by L. Appuleius Saturninus.