Only three days after the Ides of March, Spink purchased one of the most famous coins of antiquity- a Brutus silver denarius - on behalf of an American collector. Spink were underbidders in a Swiss sale in 1959 for the same coin which fetched SF 5400. It was purchased this week for €103,500.
The coin commemorates the assassination of Julius Caesar by Brutus. On the obverse of the coin we see the portrait of Brutus and on the reverse the date of the assassination and daggers, the weapons used to carry out the act. Between the two daggers there is a Pileus which symbolizes liberty and clearly suggests the death of Caesar as an act of patriotism.
The coin was minted under the orders of Brutus by a traveling mint in 42BC. It was the equivalent of one day’s wages for his foot soldiers. Around 50 of these coins exist in the world today and only 8 or 9 in private hands.
Brutus’ Denarius is one of very few coins which are noted by Dio Cassius in Roman History: “Brutus stamped upon the coins which were being minted his own likeness and a cap and two daggers, indicating by this and by the inscription that he and Cassius had liberated the fatherland.”
- Post to:
del.icio.us
Digg
Newsvine
Nowpublic
Reddit
« Previous | Home | Next »