Sale: CNG 63, Lot: 984. Estimate $500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 21 May 2003.  Sold For $550. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SARDINIA, Caralis. Circa 40 BC. Æ 31mm (35.22 gm). ARISTO MVTVM[BAL RICOCE SVF], conjoined heads right / [VENERIS], tetrastyle temple; KAR in exergue. RPC I 624; FITA 149/150. Fine, weak at peripheries, brown patina with some green encrustation around the devices, obverse casting pit. Very rare. ($500)

The identification of the conjoined heads on the obverse of this coin remains uncertain. They have been variously identified as Octavian and Agrippa, Octavian, and M. Aemilius Lepidus, and Octavian and Caesar. RPC states that "the portraits are completely unlike those of Octavian and...are probably those of municipal officials." In the case of provincial coinage, it is difficult to use style as a criterion in identification as the die engraving was often either the work of inferior engravers or engravers without access to the Imperial imago. Without any epigraphic evidence the exact identity of these individuals remains uncertain.