385, Lot: 445. Estimate $100. Sold for $360. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

C. Malleolus. 96 BC. Æ As (30mm, 23.46 g, 8h). Rome mint. Laureate head of bearded Janus; I (mark of value) above / Prow of galley right; mallet (malleolus) above. Crawford 335/4 (citing only 5 specimens in Paris); Sydenham 616; Type as RBW 1206. Near VF, green patina with light earthen highlights/deposits. Very rare.

From the Andrew McCabe Collection, purchased in the Netherlands, 2010.

A very rare type that I purchased as an anonymous issue; evidently there is a mallet above the prow. Space did not preclude including the moneyer’s name Caius Malleolus on this coin, as was done on the silver issues of this type, but the Roman love of punning types led the moneyer to instead include simply the mallet, probably knowing that many – including my vendor– would just assume it to be the usual value mark I on the as denomination, and only the few cognoscenti would smile in recognition of the pun and the allusion. [A. McCabe]