Triton XIX, Lot: 2180. Estimate $30000. Sold for $65000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Anonymous. Circa 225-212 BC. AV Half-Stater (15mm, 3.44 g, 5h). Rome mint. Laureate, janiform head of Dioscuri / Oath-taking scene: youth kneeling left, head right, holding a pig between two warriors, one Roman and the other representing the Italian allies, standing facing each other, holding spears and touching with their swords a sacrificial pig held by a youth kneeling left; ROMA in exergue. Crawford 28/2; Sydenham 70; Bahrfeldt 2.2, pl. I, 13 (this coin); Biaggi 2; RBW 62. VF, some marks, edge lightly filed. Very rare.

From the collection of Dr. Lawrence A. Adams. Ex Goodman Collection (Triton I, 2 December 1997), lot 844; John Work Garrett Collection, Part 1 (Numismatic Fine Arts/Leu, 16 May 1984), lot 642; Sir Arthur Evans Collection (Naville III, 16 June 1922), lot 2; Count Tolstoi Collection (11 March 1912), lot 67; Hirsch VIII (18 May 1903), lot 1411.

This, the first gold coinage of the Roman Republic, was minted at a time of national crisis. In 218 BC, Hannibal, the Carthaginian leader in Spain, led his army across the Alps and invaded northern Italy, thus beginning the Second Punic War. The invader won a series of brilliant victories culminating in the battle of Cannae, in 216 BC, in which the Romans are said to have lost 70,000 men. Gold staters and half staters were struck at this time having as their obverse type a beardless janiform head perhaps representing the Dioscuri, the gods who gave special protection to the Romans on the field of battle. The attractive reverse type shows an oath-taking scene, the clear intention being to strengthen the resolve of Rome's allies in the face of Hannibal's intimidating presence. The weight standard of the half-stater is three scripula, or scruples.