411, Lot: 355. Estimate $100. Sold for $80. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Q. Caecilius Metellus. 130 BC. Æ Quadrans (17mm, 4.44 g, 3h). Rome mint. Head of Hercules right, wearing lion skin headdress; ••• (mark of value) to left / Prow of galley right; Q • (ME)(TE) above; ••• (mark of value) to right, [R]OMA below. Crawford 256/4a; Sydenham 510b; Type as RBW 1045. EF, light brown surfaces with a darker area on the obverse.

From the Andrew McCabe Collection, purchased from Numismatica Ars Classica, 2014.

This coin is as made. I know this because when I first acquired it, there was a very narrow sprue, perhaps one tenth of a millimeter in thickness and one millimeter long, extending off one side, demonstrating that the coin had never circulated, otherwise this would have been quickly knocked off. This eventually happened in time through handling in my own collection – the sprue is no longer there. The burnt patch on the obverse may be a relic of the original manufacturing. [Andrew McCabe]