In Support of Brutus?

CNG 103, Lot: 648. Estimate $2500. Sold for $4000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Moneyer issues of Imperatorial Rome. L. Servius Rufus. 43 BC. AR Denarius (19mm, 3.79 g, 5h). Rome mint. Bare head (of Brutus?) right / The Dioscuri standing facing, each holding spear and with sword hanging from waist. Crawford 515/2; CRI 324; Sydenham 1082; Sulpicia 10; RBW 1793. VF, toned, banker’s mark on obverse. Very rare.

From the RBW Collection. Ex Schweizerischer Kreditanstalt 5 (18 April 1986), lot 337.

This moneyer is only known from his coins. The bust has traditionally been regarded as portraying Servius Sulpicius Rufus, who was responsible for raising the siege of Tusculum in 377 BC. But since the moneyer is a Servius, not a Sulpicius, this identification is probably inaccurate. The portrait does bear a remarkable resemblance to Brutus, and it possible that the coin was struck as an expression of political sympathy toward Brutus' cause.