61, Lot: 170. Estimate $300. Sold for $370. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

M. Junius Brutus. 54 BC. AR Denarius (19mm, 3.54 gm). Head of L. Junius Brutus right / Head of C. Servilius Ahala right. Crawford 433/2; Sydenham 907; Junia 30. Lightly toned, good VF, small flan crack on reverse, light porosity.

From the Tony Hardy Collection.

The types on this example, struck while Brutus was a moneyer, reflect the future assassin's strong republican leanings. His ancestral namesake was instrumental in the expulsion of the last kings, the Tarquins, from Rome and the foundation of the Republic; Ahala, a maternal ancestor of Brutus, in 439 BC slew Sp. Maelius, a man who had supposedly been plotting against the Republic.