Extremely Rare Aurunculeius Quinarius

436, Lot: 411. Estimate $500. Sold for $950. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

C. Aurunculeius, praetor. Circa 209 BC. AR Quinarius (14mm, 1.89 g, 1h). Sardinia mint. Helmeted head of Roma right; V (mark of value) behind / The Dioscuri, each holding spear, on horseback right; (AVR) below horses, ROMA within linear frame in exergue. Crawford 65/1; King 7; Sydenham 161; Aurelia 9; Type as RBW 273. VF, toned, some porosity. Extremely rare, King cites only four specimens, all in museums.

From the Andrew McCabe Collection, purchased from John Jencek, 2010.

Extremely rare, the only example in the auction record being the RBW specimen (NAC 61, lot 287). In my paper on the bronze coinage of Apulia given at the Taormina International Numismatic Congress, I describe the typical design characteristics of the C, MA, and AVR quinarii and thus demonstrate that the spearhead quinarius RRC 83/3 certainly belongs in Sardinia as do many of the RRC 88 bronzes, both previously allocated to Apulia. C, MA, and AVR are certainly Manlius, Cornelius, and Aurunculeius, the praetors in Sardinia in 211, 210, and 209 BC respectively. This likely means the spearhead must belong either to 212 or 208 BC in Sardinia – when, and what magistrate roll is still under investigation. [Andrew McCabe]