Important Anonymous As
Note Placement of Mark of Value

436, Lot: 436. Estimate $150. Sold for $355. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Anonymous. 157-156 BC. Æ As (28mm, 19.85 g, 10h). Rome mint. Laureate head of bearded Janus; I (mark of value) above / Prow of galley right; I (mark of value) to right. Crawford 197-198B/1b; Sydenham –; Type as RBW 848; McCabe Group K3. Near VF, dark brown surfaces, some porosity. Rare.

From the Andrew McCabe Collection. Ex RBW Collection Duplicate; purchased by him from Roberto Russo, 27 August 1993.

See T.V. Buttrey in The Numismatic Chronicle 1973, pp. 44-51, “A Hoard of Republican Asses from Rome,” which isolates exactly this type of anonymous as and proves that it dates to the mid second century BC: “The types of the asses are unexceptional, save for three pieces here listed for convenience under Sydenham 302, but with mark of value to the r. of prow. Normally, such a figuration implies that a symbol or monogram occurs above the prow, but in this case the coins are genuinely anonymous: the area above the prow is clear... The issue is known from a few other examples and is to be listed by Michael Crawford in his forthcoming catalogue of Roman Republican coinage (no. 197-198B/1b, c. 157-156 BC).” Curiously in RRC, Michael Crawford does not refer to the Buttrey article on the [1960 discovered] Rome hoard, even as forthcoming, but instead refers to the d'Ailly line drawings for style, and also misplaces as RRC 272/2 on pl. XXXIX, 2 a quadrans that should certainly belong to RRC 197-198B. In Essays Russo, I separate the 197-198B issues into this rare issue, RRC 197/1b and its fractions, as my group K3 dating to the mid 150s BC; then the various more common earlier issues with value mark above prow, RRC 197/1a, as either group J2 dating to the 180s, or groups K1 or K2 dating to the 170s-160s BC. This type with value mark before prow is among the rarest anonymous as types known to me. Important. [Andrew McCabe]