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Research Coins: Electronic Auction

 

First Reported Example of a Bronze with Symbol as an Overstrike

443, Lot: 438. Estimate $100.
Sold for $240. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Anonymous. 211-208 BC. Æ Sextans (19mm, 6.12 g, 6h). Mint in central Italy. Draped bust of Mercury right, wearing petasus; • • (mark of value) above / Prow of galley right; above, Victory flying right, holding wreath; •• (mark of value) below. Crawford 61/6; Sydenham 148d; Type as RBW 258. VF, dark brown surfaces, roughness. Overstruck.


From the Andrew McCabe Collection. Ex RBW Collection Duplicate.

Unpublished overstrike: this flying Victory sextans is the first known example of a “Rome” mint issue with a symbol overstruck on a non-Roman coin in the Second Punic War. Checking Crawford's RRC Table 18 shows a jump from RRC 56 (Rome, but no symbol) to RRC 63/64/65 (Sardinia) to RRC 69-72 (Sicily) to RRC 97ff (Luceria, et al). The record is entirely missing any overstrikes outside the war zones of Sicily, Apulia, or Sardinia except anonymous issues. The undertype is also intriguing – on the obverse under Mercury's chin one sees a very clear letter T (though this may be a design element) adjacent to a segment of crest; above the T there is a run of dots. The overtype is in exactly the correct style of a RRC 61/6 sextans – there's no possibility of a misreading or of Victory being part of an undertype, and the overtype die form resulting in a slightly concave reverse is also normal for the Victory type – differing, for example, from typical flat dies in Apulia or Sicily.

The undertype matches none of the usual Second Punic War undertypes – not Syracuse, not Sardo-Punic, not Carthage, not Rhegium, not Campania, not Acarnania, not Ptolemaic. The crest at the edge would match many Roman unciae obverses, but doesn't reconcile with a letter T. A brief check through Historia Numorum–Italy did not reveal any possible undertypes. Deduction of the undertype will remain a challenge for the new owner, however, one additional point of context is worth sharing: this coin came in a group that included CNG E-432, lots 210 and 211, the six other coins being from Sicily, and that also included the group of Sicilian sextans and uncia overstrikes later in this sale. This was the only coin with a symbol (Victory) in this group from the RBW collection excepting corn-ear types. Unique and important for a range of reasons. [Andrew McCabe]