Sale: Triton IX, Lot: 639. Estimate $500.  Closing Date: Monday, 9 January 2006.  Sold For $425. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CELTIC, Middle Danube. Uncertain tribe in Pannonia. Late 2nd-early 1st century BC. AR Denarius (3.64 g, 12h). Imitating Roman Republican type. Helmeted head of Roma right; LEL behind / Two warriors (or gladiators) fighting, both holding weapon overhead, the one on right also holds circular shield; palms flanking. Davis Class B/I; Lanz -; CCCBM I 261 var. (letters behind helmet); KMW -; De la Tour 10092; Allen & Nash -. VF, darkly toned, partial flat strike. ($300)

Ex Boyd Collection (Baldwin's, 26 September 2005), lot 152 (part of), with his original ticket; purchased from W.S. Lincoln, January 1904.

Imitations of Roman Republican denarii often have obverse and reverse types that are copied from different issues. CCCBM lists this coinage as imitating the issue of the Roman moneyer Q. Thermus M.f. (Crawford 319/1; Minucia 19). If so, the obverse is certainly copied from another Roman type, as the Thermus issue has a left facing head of Mars on its obverse. As the helmeted Roma type used here appears on a vast array of different Republican issues, it is uncertain which was imitated here, regardless of the visible legend (which is barbarized on this coin). Another possibility is that the coin is an imitation of the issue of T. Didius (Crawford 294/1; Didia 2) with two gladiators fighting on the reverse. While the reverse on our coin is slightly closer to the Thermus issue, the obverse of the Didius issue is of the same type that is imitated here.