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Research Coins: Electronic Auction

 
443, Lot: 434. Estimate $150.
Sold for $220. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Celtiberian. Second Punic War, circa 211-206 BC. AR Hacksilber (2 pieces) (15.57 & 4.07 g). Cf. Van Alfen, et al., “A New Celtiberian Hacksilber Hoard, c. 200 BCE” (AJN 2008), pp. 265-293 & pl. 67-8 for similar examples. As made, toned. Two (2) pieces in lot.


From the Andrew McCabe Collection, purchased from Numismática Prados, Lisbon.

Iberian silver ingots likely from the Second Punic War period, weights 15.57 and 4.07 grams. See van Alfen, Almagro-Gorbea, and Ripollès, “A New Celtiberian Hacksilber Hoard, c. 200 BCE” in the American Journal of Numismatics (ANS 2008), pp. 265-293, for similar examples. These two are at the heavier end of typical weights; van Alfen, et al. specifically mention the possibility of their being an aim to create pieces that were even fractions of a Roman denarius weight, officially 4.5 grams at the time. In that case, we might assume these two represent four-denarius and one-denarius silver pieces.

See also Andrew McCabe, “A Hoard of Cut Roman Republican Denarii from the Second Punic War", in Fides–Essays Witschonke, (ANS 2015), p. 232, noting “the lack of discrimination between foreign and Roman coins, all likely considered as valued by weight, and that the guarantee normally implicit in good quality whole coins was, in this wartime environment, more a cause for suspicion than fragments or cut coins. This would explain the preference for choosing heavier Roman coins, if a choice were available at time of receipt, or through marketplace exchange or sorting, and for then making cuts that clearly demonstrated the quality of the silver for future exchange purposes.” This lack of discrimination between coins and hacksilber was a result not only of Iberian tradition, but a consequence of individuals or groups of soldiers working for Hannibal or Scipio on different campaigning seasons depending who could pay. It made no sense to accept coins at a premium to their silver weight if one might switch to a side where those coins no longer were tender. Of the two ingots, the lighter round ingot cast in an open mold is the appropriate size and weight to be a denarius blank. The heavier piece also appears to be cast as-is and not cut. [Andrew McCabe]