Sale: Triton VII, Lot: 183. Estimate $600.  Closing Date: Monday, 12 January 2004.  Sold For $900. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

KINGS of THRACE. Koson. Mid 1st century BC. AV Stater (8.39 gm). KOSWN, Roman consul accompanied by two lictors; monogram to left / Eagle standing left on sceptre, holding wreath. RPC I 1701A; BMC Thrace pg. 208, 1; BMCRR II pg. 474, 48. Superb EF. ($600)

Marcus Junius Brutus and C. Cassius Longinus left for Greece in August of 44 BC, having failed to win popular support at Rome following the assassination of Caesar. In the next two years the tyrannicides collected an immense war chest as they assembled their forces for the contest against Antony and Octavian. Local rulers, Koson among them, were convinced or compelled to contribute their resources to finance the military buildup. Called either "Cotison" or "Coson" in brief references by Horus, Florus, and Suetonius, Koson was a Geto-Dacian king who survived the Roman civil war and dies in 29 BC. He is known to history only from brief literary references and from his remarkable issue of gold staters. The obverse of these coins depicts the great consul L. Junius Brutus, who expelled the Tarquins from Rome in 509 BC, accompanied by two lictors bearing axes. The design is copied from the denarius issued by M. Junius Brutus when he was a moneyer in 54 BC (Crawford 433/1). The reverse, an eagle standing on a sceptre and holding a victory wreath, was evidently a standard type at Rome and occurs on the coinage of Q. Pomponius Rufus (Crawford 398/1). The designs express Brutus’ propaganda in the civil war perfectly: the obverse represents the historic fight against tyranny, and the reverse is a symbol of patriotism in the form of the victorious Roman eagle.