Among the Finest

Triton XX, Lot: 559. Estimate $5000. Sold for $7000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Brutus. Spring-early summer 42 BC. AR Denarius (20mm, 3.73 g, 12h). Military mint traveling with Brutus and Cassius in the East. L. Sestius, proquaestor. Veiled and draped bust of Libertas right; L • SESTI • PRO • Q around / Tripod; securis to left, simpulum to right, Q • CAEPIO • BRVTVS • PRO • COS around. Crawford 502/2; CRI 201; RSC 11; Sydenham 1290; Kestner 3772; BMCRR East 41-5; RBW 1768. EF, sharp strike on a broad flan. Among the finest known.

From the Kallman Collection. Ex Triton XIV (4 January 2011), lot 599; Triton VII (12 January 2004), lot 834.

This typically crudely struck coinage was issued for an army under the command of L. Sestius Quirinalis, son of a Pompeian commander, who joined forces with the tyrannicides. He nonetheless gained the pardon of Octavian after the downfall of Brutus and later became a consul in 23 BC. Sestius is further known historically as the dedicatee of one of Horace's odes (Carmina 1, 4).