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Research Coins: Electronic Auction

 
408, Lot: 405. Estimate $200.
Sold for $340. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

C. Servilius Vatia. 127 BC. Æ Semis (20mm, 5.44 g, 3h). Rome mint. Laureate head of Saturn right; S (mark of value) to left / Prow of galley right, inscribed [C•]SERVEILI; above, lion running right, S (mark of value) to right, ROMA below. Crawford 264/2; Sydenham 484; Type as RBW 1070. VF, dark green to black patina. Extremely rare.


From the Andrew McCabe Collection, purchased from Numismatica Ars Classica, 2011.

This extremely rare type is an unusual instance of a depiction of a lion in the middle period of Roman Republican coinage. Lions are depicted on early Roman coinage, see RRC 16 and RRC 20, in the early third century BC, and they become prolific in the Imperatorial period, but this is the only instance of a lion used as a symbol on coinage of the late third or second century BC. [Andrew McCabe]