Search


CNG Bidding Platform

Information

Products and Services



Research Coins: Electronic Auction

 
432, Lot: 236. Estimate $100.
Sold for $60. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Q. Caecilius Metellus. 130 BC. Æ Quadrans (16.5mm, 3.25 g, 10h). Contemporary imitation(?). Uncertain mint. Struck circa 100 BC(?). Head of Hercules right, wearing lion skin headdress; ••• (mark of value) to left / Prow of galley right; Q M I above; [•••] (mark of value) to right, [R]OMA below. Crawford 256/4a var. (rev. legend); Sydenham 510b var. (same); cf. RBW 1046. VF, brown surfaces, a bit of porosity.


From the Andrew McCabe Collection. Ex Thersites Collection (Roma Numismatics E-Sale 30, 29 October 2016), lot 340.

This curious bronze has a reverse of fine style with a complex prow design, yet the coin is likely imitative. It's style does not appear like any of the imitative ME or Q. METE quadrantes and the legend seems to read Q.M.I. However, the Q.METE imitatives come in many different versions and error variants, so this is likely another variant, most probably dating to around 100 BC. These imitatives were first documented by Pierre Bourlier d'Ailly (1794-1877) in his four volume work on Republican struck bronzes in the 1860s. Michael Crawford used the d'Ailly data as the basis of a categorization of imitatives for a 1982 conference in the Palazzo Barberini in Rome on monetary policy and mint management in Republican Rome, the proceedings of which were published as a standalone A.I.I.N. Volume 29 in 1982, an essential reference book for all academic Republican numismatists. [Andrew McCabe]