Very Rare Cassius Aureus

Triton XXI, Lot: 671. Estimate $50000. Sold for $55000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

The Republicans. C. Cassius Longinus. Spring 42 BC. AV Aureus (18mm, 8.02 g, 7h). Military mint, probably at Smyrna; P. Lentulus Spinther, legate. Diademed head of Libertas right; C • CASSI • IMP upward to left, LEIBERTAS upward to right / Capis and lituus; LENTVLVS/SPINT in two lines below. Crawford 500/2; CRI 220; Calicó 65b; Sydenham 1306; RBW –. EF, a few light marks. Very rare.

P. Cornelius Lentulus Spinther and M. Servilius were joint legates to Cassius and Brutus, and both issued coins in the names of their generals. Lentulus Spinther was born in 74 BC and assumed the toga virilis in 57 BC, and in the same year was elected to the college of augurs. After the murder of Caesar, he joined the parties of Cassius and Brutus and was probably killed at Philippi. The reverse type of this coin refers to Lentulus' appointment to the college of augurs, and is one of the few instances in imperatorial coinage in which a moneyer used a reverse type that was personal to himself.