81, Lot: 20. Estimate $600. Sold for $725. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

DYNASTS of THRACE. Koson. Mid First Century BC. AV Stater (19mm, 8.67 gm). Roman consul accompanied by two lictors; BR monogram to left / Eagle standing left on sceptre, holding wreath. RPC I 1701; BMC Thrace pg. 208, 2. Superb EF. 

The design of this popular type is copied from the denarius issued by M. Junius Brutus when he was 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 monogram is to be read as BR or LBR (Brutus or L. Brutus). The designs express Brutus' propaganda in the civil war perfectly: the obverse represents the historic fight against tyranny, and the reverse represents the victorious Roman eagle.