408, Lot: 382. Estimate $100. Sold for $60. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Anonymous. 208 BC. Æ Semis (31mm, 15.65 g, 12h). Staff and club series. Mint in Etruria(?). Laureate head of Saturn right; S (mark of value) behind / Prow right; above, horizontal staff and S (mark of value); club within fighting platform. Crawford 106/5; Sydenham 210a; Type as RBW 480. Near VF, green and brown patina with traces of red, some roughness and minor smoothing.

From the Andrew McCabe Collection. Ex Tony Hardy Collection (Part I, Classical Numismatic Group 61, 25 September 2002), lot 1151.

The staff and club series of bronzes is complex and has not yet been properly catalogued. The silver types show only a staff. The related bronzes show either a staff, or a staff and club, or neither (McCabe Group E, Essays Russo, 2013). Sizes of the coins also vary substantially, with the semisses being struck in large and small modules; this is a smaller module semis. In this regard, they mirror the issues with L (RRC 43 and 97), corn-ear (RRC 42 and 72), and Rome mint anonymous (RRC 41 and 56). This semis shows both a staff above the prow and a club within the fighting platform. For those coins showing a club, its position can vary, with the club sometimes being an obverse mark. [Andrew McCabe]