Extremely Rare Head Left

Triton XIX, Lot: 459. Estimate $3000. Sold for $3250. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Augustus. 27 BC-AD 14. AR Denarius (19mm, 3.85 g, 6h). Lugdunum (Lyon) mint. Struck 15 BC. AVGVSTVS DIVI • F, bare head left / IMP • X across field, ACT • in exergue, Apollo Citharoedus of Actium, wearing long drapery, standing facing, head left, holding plectrum in right hand and lyre in left. RIC I 171b; Lyon 26; RSC 144 var. (head right); BMCRE –; BMCRR –; BN 1399-1401 var. (same). VF, toned, hairline flan crack. Very rare with head left and pellet after ACT, Giard records only one example in Lyon. Not even the Bibliothèque Nationale has an example of this issue with head left..

From the V. Robert Chiodo Collection. Ex Richard Prideaux Collection (Triton XI, 8 January 2008), lot 841; Classical Numismatic Group 40 (with Numismatica Ars Classica, 4 December 1996), lot 1333.