452, Lot: 689. Estimate $100. Sold for $425. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Anonymous. 157-156 BC. Æ As (30.5mm, 20.42 g, 6h). Rome mint. Laureate head of bearded Janus; I (mark of value) above / Prow of galley right with peaked deck structure; I (mark of value) to right. Crawford 198B/1b; Sydenham –; Type as RBW 848. Dark brown surfaces with touches of green. VF. Very rare.

From the Andrew McCabe Collection, purchased from London Ancient Coins.

See T.V. Buttrey in The Numismatic Chronicle 1973, pp. 44-51, “A Hoard of Republican Asses from Rome,” which isolates exactly this type of anonymous as and proves that it dates to the mid second century BC: “The types of the asses are unexceptional, save for three pieces here listed for convenience under Sydenham 302, but with mark of value to the r. of prow. Normally, such a figuration implies that a symbol or monogram occurs above the prow, but in this case the coins are genuinely anonymous: the area above the prow is clear... The issue is known from a few other examples and is to be listed by Michael Crawford in his forthcoming catalogue of Roman Republican coinage (no. 197-198B/1b, c. 157-156 BC).”

Curiously in RRC, Michael Crawford does not refer to the Buttrey article on the [1960 discovered] Rome hoard, even as forthcoming, but instead refers to the d'Ailly line drawings for style, and also misplaces as RRC 272/2 on pl. XXXIX, 2 a quadrans that should certainly belong to RRC 197-198B. In Essays Russo, I separate the 197-198B issues into this rare issue, RRC 197/1b and its fractions, as my group K3 dating to the mid 150s BC; then the various more common earlier issues with value mark above prow, RRC 197/1a, as either group J2 dating to the 180s, or groups K1 or K2 dating to the 170s-160s BC. This type with value mark before prow is among the rarest anonymous as types known to me. Important. [Andrew McCabe]