Sale: Triton VIII, Lot: 896. Estimate $10000.  Closing Date: Monday, 10 January 2005.  Sold For $26000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Q. Pomponius Musa. 66 BC. AR Denarius (3.82 gm, 7h). Rome mint. Laureate head of Apollo right, wearing hair rolled back and in loose locks over forehead; flower or rosette before ear; flower on stem behind / Q. POMPONI to left, MVSA to right, Erato, the Muse of Erotic Poetry, standing slightly right, head front, wearing long flowing tunic and peplum, holding lyre in left hand and with right hand striking it with plectrum. Crawford 410/6; Sydenham 814 (same dies as plate coin); Kestner -; BMCRR Rome 3612 (same dies); CNR Pomponia 21/6 (this coin); Pomponia 12 (same dies as plate coin). Good VF, pleasing gray and gold toning, a few old obverse marks and two small die breaks. Extremely rare. ($10,000)

From the Claude Collection.

Of all the Muses in Q. Pomponius Musa's series, Erato, the Muse of Erotic Poetry, is very many times rarer than any other of the Muses. Even the Kestner Museum Hannover does not have a single example in its extensive collection. The last appearance at auction of this excessively rare issue was in the Leo Benz Collection (Lanz 88, 23 November 1998), lot 584 (struck from the same dies as the present specimen), where it realized DM 36,000 (about $18,000). This is the first example we have offered at auction.

See lot 888 for a note on the Muses coinage of Q. Pomponius Musa.