Antony’s Earliest Portrait
Ex Niggeler Collection

Triton XXII, Lot: 955. Estimate $15000. Sold for $9000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

The Triumvirs. Mark Antony. April-May 44 BC. AR Denarius (18mm, 3.26 g, 3h). Rome mint; P. Sepullius Macer, moneyer. Veiled head right, wearing beard; capis to left, lituus to right / Desultor (horseman who leaps from one horse to another), wearing conical cap and holding whip, right on horseback, second horse behind; [palm frond] and wreath to left; P SEPVLLIVS above, MACER below. Crawford 480/22; Alföldi Type XXI, 1 (A1/R1– this coin illustrated on pl. CXLIII); CRI 142; RSC 74; Sydenham 1077; BMCRR Rome 4178; CNR II Marcus Antonivs 120/1 (this coin); RBW 1689. Choice EF, attractively toned, struck slightly off center. Excellent provenance.

From the Alan J. Harlan Collection, purchased from Edward J. Waddell. Ex Student and His Mentor Collection (Part II, Numismatica Ars Classica 73, 18 November 2013), lot 213; Tkalec & Rauch (25 April 1989), lot 230; Walter Niggeler Collection (Part 2, Bank Leu/Münzen und Medaillen AG, 21 October 1966), lot 967.

This is the first portrait issue of Mark Antony. Struck within a month or two of the assassination of Julius Caesar, Antony is shown bearded, clearly symbolic of one in mourning.