Sale: Triton VII, Lot: 835. Estimate $25000.  Closing Date: Monday, 12 January 2004.  Sold For $29000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BRUTUS. Summer 42 BC. AR Denarius (3.38 gm). Mint moving with Brutus in northern Greece. L. Plaetorius Cestianus, magistrate. L PLAET CEST BRVT IMP, bare head of Brutus right / EID MAR, pileus between two daggers pointing downward. Crawford 508/3; Cahn 16b (this coin); CRI 216; Sydenham 1301; BMCRR East 68; RSC 15. Toned VF, ancient scrapes on highpoints. ($25,000)

Ex Sandeman Collection (Sotheby 13 June 1911), lot 368.

One of the most important coins associated an event in ancient history, this design of this denarius pointedly acknowledges the assassination of Julius Caesar by depicting the perpetrator of the act (Brutus), by naming the date of the act EID[ibus] MAR[tiis]), by displaying the instruments of the act (daggers) between the reason for the act (the pileus [freedman’s cap] as a symbol of liberty). Though many senators plotted against Caesar and are collectively represented by the two daggers, the portrait of Brutus alone emphasizes his primary role in the conspiracy.

The only securely identified portraits of Brutus occur on coins inscribed with his name; all others, whether on coins or other artifacts, are identified based on the three issues inscribed BRVTVS IMP (on aurei) or BRVT IMP (on denarii). A careful study of Brutus’ portraits by S. Nodelman segregates these inscribed portraits into three main categories: a ‘baroque’ style portrait on the aurei of Casca, a ‘neoclassical’ style on the aurei of Costa, and a ‘realistic’ style on the ‘EID MAR’ denarii, which Nodelman describes as “the soberest and most precise” of all.