364, Lot: 85. Estimate $300. Sold for $200. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Anonymous. 206-200 BC. AR Denarius (19mm, 4.34 g, 12h). Uncertain mint. Helmeted head of Roma right; X behind / The Dioscuri, each holding spear, on horseback right; two stars above, shield and carnyx below. Crawford 128/1; Sydenham 290; RBW 579; Decia 1. Near VF, toned.

From the RBW Collection. Ex Dorotheum 3 (14 October 1983), lot 241.

This issue is commonly given to an ancestor of Publius Decius Mus, who rallied his troops to victory by sacrificing himself at the Battle of Sentinum in 295 BC. The inclusion of this type in Trajan’ restoration series would seem to support this claim, but Crawford notes: “[t]he restoration of this issue by Trajan with the added legend DECIVS MVS provides no grounds whatever for supposing that it was originally struck by someone of that name – the family was certainly extinct by this period.”