Sale: CNG 69, Lot: 1312. Estimate $500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 8 June 2005.  Sold For $1750. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ZEUGITANA, Colonia Iulia Pia Paterna. Augustus. 27 BC-14 AD. Æ 31mm (14.28 gm, 6h). Struck 20 BC. Diademed head of Julius Caesar right; c/m: capricorn left with cornucopiae above and globe on rudder below / Ceres advancing right, holding two torches; plow to right. RPC I 759; MAA 94; SNG Copenhagen -. Fine, dark brown patina, corrosion pit at edge crack. Extremely rare, only two examples cited in RPC, neither with countermark. ($500)

The countermark is unattested in the literature, but is a direct copy of the reverse type of a Spanish denarius of Augustus (RIC I 128), struck 18-16 BC, and suggests a Spanish location for the application of the countermark.