436, Lot: 412. Estimate $150. Sold for $700. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Anonymous. 211-208 BC. AR Denarius (19mm, 4.27 g, 2h). Corn-ear (second) series. Mint in Sicily. Helmeted head of Roma right; X (mark of value) behind / The Dioscuri, each holding spear, on horseback right. Crawford 68/1b; Sydenham 191; RSC –; Type as RBW 280. Good VF, some iridescent toning, some light marks and scratches. Rare.

From the Andrew McCabe Collection, purchased from Northia Coins, Dublin, 2009.

The back of Roma’s visor shows the so-called ‘Bastianelli spike,’ which also appears on the quinarii with corn-ear type (cf. https://www.flickr.com/photos/ahala_rome/3538721620/), and thus associates the anonymous denarius and quinarius with the corn-ear series, so-called from the fully incuse variety of this denarius in the 1969 de Falco sale of the Bastianelli collection, (https://www.flickr.com/photos/ahala_rome/15297546921/) with that coin being cited by RRC as the type example. [Andrew McCabe]