Sale: Triton VIII, Lot: 928. Estimate $1500.  Closing Date: Monday, 10 January 2005.  Sold For $950. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

P. Cornelius Lentulus Marcellinus. 50 BC. AR Denarius (3.74 gm, 2h). Rome mint. MARCELLINVS before, bare head of M. Claudius Marcellus right; triskeles behind / MARCELLVS to right, COS QVINQ to left, M. Claudius Marcellus, veiled and togate, carrying trophy right toward tetrastyle temple. Crawford 439/1; Sydenham 1147; Kestner 3507; BMCRR Rome 4206; CNR Claudia 17; Claudia 11. Near EF, lightly toned, minor horn silver. ($1500)

From the Claude Collection.

This moneyer, presumably the quaestor of 48 BC, here honors his most famous ancestor, the holder of five consulships and one of the principal Roman heroes of the Second Punic War. The triskeles alludes to his conquest of Sicily in 212-210 BC, the spoils from which rescued the state from imminent bankruptcy. The reverse type commemorates his spolia opima, the arms won in 222 BC when, as consul, he slew an Insubrian chieftain with his own hands in the course of the Roman conquest of Cisalpine Gaul.