436, Lot: 420. Estimate $200. Sold for $425. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Anonymous. Circa 206-195 BC. Æ Quadrans (19.5mm, 5.78 g, 3h). CA series. Canusium mint. Head of Hercules right, wearing lion skin; [•]•• (mark of value) to left / Prow of galley right; R[OM]A above, CA to right, ••• (mark of value) below. Crawford 100/4a; Sydenham 309e; RBW –. Good VF, dark green to black patina, light cleaning scratches and marks. Very rare.

From the Andrew McCabe Collection. Ex ArtCoins Roma 29 (22 March 2017), lot 229.

In my article “The Roman Bronze Coinage struck in Apulia and South East Italy in the Second Punic War,” in Proceedings XV International Numismatic Congress Taormina 2015, I proposed moving much of the L mintmark coinage southward to a mint near Herdonia, and the P coinage further south to Canusium. I agree with Michael Crawford in RRC, p. 190, that P was likely a mintmaster’s mark, and its combination with L on the very rare RRC 97/22b L-P as (known in three examples, one in the ANS) leads me to believe that the P issues precede that of CA as initially a branch mint of Luceria. The war activities around Canusium in 209-208 likely date the CA coinage as well as the emergency light weight asses to this period or shortly after, which suggest P as perhaps 210-209 BC. [Andrew McCabe]