385, Lot: 456. Estimate $500. Sold for $425. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

L. Plaetorius L.f. Cestianus. 67 BC. AR Denarius (17mm, 3.92 g, 4h). Rome mint. Diademed and draped bust of Juno Moneta right; MONETA downward behind; S•C beneath chin / Athlete running right, holding palm and caestus; strigil below; L•PLAETORI downward behind; L•F•Q•S•C upward before. Crawford 396/1b; Sydenham 792a; Plaetoria 2; Type as RBW 1437 (symbol not visible). VF, light iridescent toning.

From the Andrew McCabe Collection, purchased from Freeman & Sear at NYINC, January 2010.

This agonistic series of denarii is one of the most interesting in the Roman Republican series, and with just seven symbols to collect, representing athletic competition, preparation, and prizes, it is one of the few series with symbols where one could reasonably aim to complete the set. Crawford describes the symbols as oil amphora, discus, hoop, strigil (this coin), torch, wreath, and an object described in RRC as “see pl. LXX, 61”. In Charles Hersh’s unpublished manuscript Sequence Marks on the Coinage of the Roman Republic, held at the ANS, the seventh symbol is described as a whip. [A. McCabe]