Extremely Rare Æ Aes Grave Central Casting Channel

436, Lot: 393. Estimate $300. Sold for $650. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Anonymous. Circa 216 BC. Æ Aes Grave Central Casting Channel (64x58.5x24mm, 142.35 g). Central casting channel with sprues and seam plate, likely where mould was damaged at central seam. Crawford –; ICC –; HN Italy –; Haeberlin –; no published parallels in the major references. As made, gray-green patina with roughness as made. Extremely rare.

From the Andrew McCabe Collection. Ex Nomisma (San Marino, 16 May 1998), lot 1871.

Careful examination of this piece leads me to conclude that this is part of a central casting channel for an aes grave mould with a round central channel, spurs off to the coin flans, and a thin section formed in the seam between the two moulds, where the two moulds are evidently separated by a few millimeters, perhaps at the very top where the metal was poured in as one end of the main channel has a flat depression where the channel bar ends. It is not a ramo secco bar. There is nothing quite like this in Haeberlin's illustrations, yet such casting detritus must have existed in every mould in some form, at least for a brief period before being remelted.

This piece presumes a two-sided tree mould with one main sprue, but both sides also have a thin sprue extending directly outward, perpendicular to the presumed mould seam, halfway down the piece and at the same level. The spatial geometry of the piece needs some careful consideration in hand by the new owner. Most larger aes grave have sprues on two sides of the coins implying a single through channel and not a central channel, hence there wouldn't have been a round central channel as seen here. However, for smaller pieces often only a single seam is visible, cf. RRC plate V, 13 = RRC 40/1a, showing one sprue about the same size as the two extensions on this piece, with the other side of the coin perfectly round. Other examples of small denomination aes grave sometimes show a single sprue opposite a smooth round edge, implying a casting tree. The photographs of this piece do not sufficiently convey it's interest and study potential. The absence of small dimension cast debris may be as a result of their being generally thrown back into the melting pot. Perhaps the separation of the mould that caused this to be a much larger than usual piece saved it from the pot. [Andrew McCabe]