Search


CNG Bidding Platform

Information

Products and Services



Research Coins: Electronic Auction

 
65, Lot: 38. Estimate $300.
Sold for $185. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SARDINIA, Caralis. Circa 40 BC. Æ 29mm (21.43 gm). Conjoined heads right / Tetrastyle temple of Venus; KAR in exergue. RPC I 624; FITA pp. 149-150 and Pl. V, 14. Good Fine, brown patina with earthen highlights. Very Rare.

RIC I makes a convincing argument that "KAR" here does not refer to Carthage. These coins turn up only in Sardinia, and that apparently leaves Caralis as the only likely alternative. The identity of the conjoined heads remains uncertain. They have been variously called Octavian and Agrippa, Octavian and M. Aemilius Lepidus, and Octavian and Caesar. RPC I states that "the portraits are completely unlike those of Octavian and...are probably those of municipal officials." It is difficult to use style as a criterion in identification of provincial portraits, as they were often either the work of inferior engravers or engravers without access to the Imperial imago, so without more evidence the identification must remain uncertain.