340, Lot: 225. Estimate $300. Sold for $650. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

GAUL, Central. Arverni. Circa 50-30 BC. Æ (14mm, 0.95 g, 5h). Draped bust left, wearing jeweled diadem; (VE)RCA to left / Horse walking right; rosette above. D&T 3608; Depeyrot, NC III, 236; CCCBM III 176 and S185–6. Good VF, brown surfaces, edge chip.

Many older catalogs attributed this issue to the Arverni chieftain Vercassivellaunos, who was a cousin of Versingetorix and led a relief force to assist the latter at the Battle of Alesia. According to Caesar’s De bello Gallico, Vercassivellaunos was taken prisoner during the conflict, and is presumed to have been executed following Caesar’s triumph in Rome in 46 BC. The attribution of this coin type to Vercassivellaunos has been doubted by modern numismatists, as research has shown that this issue was probably struck after Caesar’s Gallic war.