408, Lot: 435. Estimate $200. Sold for $575. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Special issues. Q. Oppius. 46 BC. Æ (27mm, 12.55 g, 12h). Uncertain Italian mint. Diademed head of Venus right; crescent before / Victory advancing left, head right, holding palm frond and plate of fruit. Crawford 550/2b; CRI 507; Sydenham 1277; Type as RBW 1858; RPC I 602. VF, dark green patina with patches of red, some roughness.

From the Andrew McCabe Collection. Ex Artemide Aste XXXVI (11 July 2012), lot 152; Tkalec AG (8 September 2008), lot 264.

See Marta Barbato, “The Coins of Clovius and Oppius (RRC 476/1 and 550/1-3): New Evidence from Find-spots,”Numismatic Chronicle 2015, pp. 103-116. Barbato suggests that this coinage was struck in Rome, 46-45 BC, alongside the Clovius bronze issue. Bernhard Woytek in Arma et Nummi also makes the same proposal. One reason that in the past this coinage had not been linked to the Clovius issue was a perception based on late 19th century analyses by Bahrfeldt that the Oppius issue was made from regular bronze whereas the Clovius issue was of orichalcum. [Andrew McCabe]