Ex JD and Voirol Collections

Triton XX, Lot: 580. Estimate $10000. Sold for $7000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

The Republicans. Brutus. Late summer-autumn 42 BC. AR Denarius (19mm, 3.83 g, 12h). Military mint traveling with Brutus and Cassius in western Asia Minor or northern Greece. P. Servilius Casca Longus, moneyer. Laureate and bearded head of Neptune right; trident below; CASCA upward to left, LONGVS upward to right / Victory advancing right on broken scepter, holding palm frond in left hand over left shoulder and broken diadem bound with fillet in both hands; BRVTVS upward to left, IMP upward to right. Crawford 507/2; CRI 212; RSC 3; Sydenham 1298; Kestner 3779; BMCRR East 63-65; RBW 1780. Superb EF, attractively toned, minor spot of deposit below wreath tie on reverse. Rare.

Ex JD Collection (Part II, Numismatica Ars Classica 72, 16 May 2013), lot 512; Kricheldorf 22 (11 February 1971), lot 179 (listed as Prachtstück); August Voirol Collection (Münzen und Medaillen AG 38, 6-7 December 1968), lot 273 (listed as Prachtexemplar).

After his assassination of Julius Caesar, Brutus and Cassius occupied Rome, but had to flee when a funeral oration delivered by Caesar’s protege, Mark Antony, turned public opinion against them. Brutus and Cassius went their separate ways, but met again in early 42 BC in Smyrna, Ionia, where they began preparations for the inevitable conflict that would ensue between them and Mark Antony and Octavian, Caesar’s grandnephew. They began using their armies to conquer cities, for which this issue was undoubtedly struck. The title IMP on the reverse shows that Brutus still styled himself the savior of the Republic, as that was a title only the Senate can award, and the Victory breaking the royal symbols of diadem and scepter is a clear allusion to their anticipated victory over the forces of tyranny.