443, Lot: 483. Estimate $100. Sold for $180. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Moneyer issues of Imperatorial Rome. T. Carisius. 46 BC. AR Denarius (20mm, 3.69 g, 4h). Rome mint. Draped and winged bust of Victory right / Victory driving galloping quadriga right, holding wreath and reins. Crawford 464/5; CRI 73; Sydenham 985; Carisia 3; Type as RBW 1618. VF, toned, irregular flan with a large lamination flaw on the reverse, bankers’ marks on the obverse.

From the Andrew McCabe Collection, purchased from Peus, reportedly from a German collection formed before 2012.

This coin interested me due to its unusual flan flaw and strike. So far as I can see, the flan had two parts possibly fused during striking or possibly fused during the flan manufacture when perhaps a small blob of silver was topped up after it had cooled sufficiently to form a surface. There are two different circles imposed on each other hence the edge effects. The obverse bankers marks reveals the lamination deep inside the coin's metal and it causes an effect as if Victory is wearing a mask. Technically interesting. [Andrew McCabe]