CNG 112, Lot: 474. Estimate $500. Sold for $500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Anonymous. Circa 225-214 BC. AR Didrachm – Quadrigatus (20mm, 6.51 g, 11h). Uncertain mint. Laureate head of Janus; • below neck / Jupiter, hurling thunderbolt and holding scepter, in galloping quadriga right driven by Victory; ROMA, partly incuse and partly raised, on tablet below. Crawford 31/1; Sydenham 64c; RSC 23a; cf. RBW 80 (for obv. style–narrow head) and 81 (for pellet below neck). Toned, metal flaws on obverse. Good VF.

From the Andrew McCabe Collection. Ex Freeman & Sear FPL 8 (Fall 2003), no. 270.

Pierluigi Debernardi and Steve Brinkman in “A New Arrangement for RRC 53/2”, Revue Numismatique 2018, suggest that the dot symbol is connected with the Cornelii Lentuli. This identification is supported by a fourfold match between coinage and moneyers: (1) Lilybaeum, Sicily 214-212 BC, P. Cornelius Lentulus praetor: quadrigatus (RRC 31 – this coin type); (2) Bovianum 212, Cn. Cornelius Lentulus quaestor: denarius (RRC 44/5) with/without dot; (3) Sardinia 211 BC, L. Cornelius Lentulus praetor: denarius and quinarius with dot (RRC 66); (4) Apulia 210-209 BC, L. Cornelius Lentulus legatus of Marcellus pro-cos: XX gold asses with dot. Mark Passehl suggested this brilliant association to the authors, the dot or pellet being a lentil, in Latin lens or lenticulae, a punning symbol for the Lentuli. This symbol is found not only on the several series mentioned in the above paper, but also on the Sardinian series RRC 66, which comprises not only the quinarius described in RRC, but also a denarius (http://stevebrinkman.ancients.info/anonymous/#H66-2). [Andrew McCabe]