420, Lot: 371. Estimate $150. Sold for $260. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Anonymous. Circa 214 BC. Æ Sextans (23.2mm, 11.03 g, 3h). Grain-ear (first) series. Sicily mint. Head of Mercury right, wearing winged petasus; • • (mark of value) above / Prow of galley right; ROMA and grain-ear above; • • (mark of value) above. Crawford 42/3; Sydenham –; Type as RBW 143. VF, dark green and brown patina. Overstruck on an identifiable undertype.

From the Andrew McCabe Collection. Ex Goodman Collection (Classical Numismatic Group 47, 16 September 1998), lot 1057.

Unpublished overstrike, not in Crawford 1974 or 1985 or in Hersh 1953 or 1987. Whilst Punic war overstrikes are common, it is extremely rare to find a new denomination not recorded as an overtype. The undertype is indicated by a clear hair parting visible below Mercury's chin and other residuals that indicate a head of hair. This would usually indicate either Zeus from a Sicilian Ptolemaic bronze (Wolf and Lorber, NC 2011) or Poseidon from a Hieron II Syracuse bronze. However, the heaviest overstrike of the latter weighs 8.61 grams and the lightest of the former weighs 15.22 grams (RRC table XVIII). This coin is right in the middle at 11 grams. Other possibilities, such as Carthaginian triple shekels, are too heavy, Brettian coins with Zeus are too light, and whilst a Roman uncia (RRC 38/6 or 39/4) is the right weight, the visible hair parting precludes it. Indeed, a careful check of RRC table XVIII shows that from 300 listed overstrikes, not a single one is in the weight range of 9 to 14 grams from any issue except where a Roman uncia was involved. For the moment, this remains a mystery; I invite viewers or the purchaser to investigate further and let me know your views. [A. McCabe]