177, Lot: 179. Estimate $2000. Sold for $1800. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Brutus. Summer 42 BC. AR Denarius (19mm, 3.71 g). Military mint traveling with Brutus and Cassius in the East. L Sestius, proquaestor. Veiled bust of Libertas right / Tripod with axe, simpulum. Crawford 502/2; CRI 201; Sydenham 1290; RSC 11. EF, lightly toned, flan crack.

This crudely struck coinage was issued for an army under the command of L. Sestius Quirinalis, son of a Pompeian commander, who joined forces with the tyrannicides. He nonetheless gained the pardon of Octavian after the downfall of Brutus, and later became a consul in 23 BC. Sestius is further known historically as the dedicated of one of Horace's odes (Carmina 1, 4).