436, Lot: 481. Estimate $200. Sold for $300. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Moneyer issues of Imperatorial Rome. T. Carisius. 46 BC. AR Denarius (19mm, 3.71 g, 6h). Rome mint. Head of Juno Moneta right / Implements for coining money: anvil die with garlanded punch die above, tongs and hammer on either side; all within laurel wreath. Crawford 464/2; CRI 70; Sydenham 982a; Carisia 1a; Type as RBW 1614. VF, toned, small pin hole on obverse below Moneta’s bust.

From the Andrew McCabe Collection, purchased from Peus Nachf., with old German collection ticket.

The apparent punch die on this type may be a cap of Liberty, and the lower die a generic anvil. The cap-shaped object is wreathed like a Dioscurus cap, which is the same cap worn by Vulcan, the god of metal-working. An analogue can be seen in the Scribonius Wellhead issue, RRC 416, which displays four different symbols, not three. Even rarer than the sought-after anvil is the Scribonius with a cap of Liberty, a variety not listed by Crawford. The scene on this coin may thus represent Vulcan’s generic metal-making workshop, but with the placement of the cap above the anvil, it may also be intended to allude to minting even if a punch die is not directly shown.

RRC p. 475 notes one reverse die of this issue with legend T. CARISIV (Amsterdam) as per this coin. Richard Schaefer obtained a photograph of the Amsterdam example and compared it to other examples in his Republican Die Project. In fact, reverse die matched examples to the Amsterdam coin prove the final S of CARISIVS did exist, but the die was filled at a later state. This CARISIV variety from a different die pair seems to have been caused by the same phenomenon. There is a trace of a final letter S. [Andrew McCabe]