452, Lot: 670. Estimate $200. Sold for $425. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Anonymous. 206-195 BC. Æ As (33.5mm, 33.91 g, 7h). Star (first) series. Rome mint. Laureate head of bearded Janus; I (mark of value) above / Prow of galley right; star above, I (mark of value) to right. Crawford 113/2; Schaefer & McCabe Figs. 1 & 5; Sydenham 264; Type as RBW 519. Dark brown to black patina. VF. An attractive example with nice surfaces.

From the Andrew McCabe Collection. Ex Numismatica Ars Classica F (17 April 1996), lot 1459; Bombarda Collection (with collector’s ticket).

See Schaefer and McCabe, “A Fresh Look at Roman Republican Star Bronzes, RRC 113 and 196” (The Numismatic Chronicle 2011, pp. 99-108), for a discussion of bronzes with star above or before prow. The features of this earlier RRC 113 star issue are there described as “prow-stem is straight, long and thin; lower wales (the horizontal lines above the keel but below the mid-wale line of dots) curve down from left to right and converge towards the keel; wales meet in a short rostrum tridens which projects only a little past the hull; the latter A in ROMA is open, i.e. the bar of the A is angled and is connected to only one of the two vertical supports of the letter.” This RRC 113/2 As is much scarcer than the later RRC 196/1 As. [Andrew McCabe]