Sale: Triton VIII, Lot: 816. Estimate $20000.  Closing Date: Monday, 10 January 2005.  Sold For $18000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Anonymous. 225-216 BC. Æ Aes Grave Tressis (Triple As) (349.09 gm, 12h). Semi-Libral standard. Rome mint. Head of Roma right, wearing Phrygian-style helmet with visor and neck guard, and griffin crest; III behind / Prow of galley to left; III above. Cf. Thurlow & Vecchi 63 (semi-libral as) and 68 (post semi-libral tressis); Haeberlin pl. 46, 4-5 and pl. 47; Crawford 41/3a; BMCRR 20; Sydenham 99 (all post semi-libral). Good VF for type, dark green patina with lighter green in the recesses. Extremely rare and important, apparently the second known. ($20,000)

Haeberlin illustrates twelve tresses on his plates, ranging in weight from 313 grams down to 203 grams, of the standard which TV terms post semi-libral. The higher weight of the present piece, along with its crisper details, places it in the earlier semi-libral period, when the as was set to a standard of something between 100 and 135 grams. Haeberlin called all these pieces semi-libral standard, not recognizing the post semi-libral issues with their slightly reduced weight (under 100 grams for the as) and declining style, which Thurlow &Vecchi attribute to the exigencies of the period of the Second Punic War against Hannibal.