408, Lot: 367. Estimate $100. Sold for $240. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Anonymous. Circa 217-215 BC. Æ Semuncia (20mm, 6.84 g, 5h). Rome mint. Draped bust of Mercury right, wearing winged petasus / Prow of galley right. Crawford 38/7; Sydenham 87; Type as RBW 100-2. VF, dark brown surfaces with traces of green.

From the Andrew McCabe Collection, purchased from Alessandra Brunetti 7 (24 November 2010), lot 409.

The RRC 38/7 semunicia type is perhaps the most prolific struck bronze of the Roman Republic and comes in a wide range of styles: a range of styles that can be seen in the English Amateur Scholar collection (NAC 92, Part II [2016], lots 1524-1527). It seems improbable that the Romans would have produced a vast coinage of such a small denomination in just a two year period, conventionally dated to 217-215 BC. Given that the small denominations of the RRC 35 and 36 libral prow bronzes were made in such small quantities – the uncia of RRC 35 is rare and the series lacks a semuncia whilst RRC 36 lacks both denominations – it seems worth considering whether the RRC 38 struck bronzes were initially a token issue (half weight) that accompanied the prow libral bronzes. This would not contradict the 215-217 BC dating for the semilibral cast coinage, which are principally evidenced by the weight reductions in the major denominations. [Andrew McCabe]