Extremely Rare Issue – Provides Evidence for Heretofore Unknown Die Link

329, Lot: 421. Estimate $300. Sold for $1300. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Anonymous issues. 1st-2nd centuries AD. Orichalcum Tessera (18mm, 2.76 g, 6h). Galley right / Large G. Kestner –; Göbl, Antike –; Cohen 56-7 var. (rev. letters); cf. Künker 124, lot 9465 (for rev.; same die, but later die state). VF, toned. Extremely rare.

This tessera is not made of lead or bronze, as is the case with many others, but is of orichalcum, evidenced by the brass color of the exposed metal. It belongs to an issue with a galley on the obverse, and a capital letter – either a D or a T – on the reverse. While examples with the D and T are known, they are rare; no other examples with the G, other than this, are known to the cataloger. The reverse, however, is die-linked to a very rare tessera issue with a TR monogram on the obverse; the Künker example shows the reverse in a slightly later die state. For what purpose this tessera was struck remains unclear, though the die-link across the two different issues and the metal used suggests that they were meant for some specific, possibly significant, occasion.