Very Rare No-whip Variety with Wing Symbol

443, Lot: 457. Estimate $100. Sold for $425. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

D. Silanus L.f. 91 BC. AR Denarius (18mm, 3.89 g, 12h). Rome mint. Diademed head of Salus right; P below chin; all within torque / Victory driving galloping biga right, holding palm frond and reins; wing below. Crawford 337/2f; Sydenham 645c; Junia 17; Type as RBW –. VF, toned, couple minor scratches. Rare variety without whip.

From the Andrew McCabe Collection, purchased from Germania Inferior Numismatics.

The wing symbol is an engraver's mark, which Crawford demonstrated by showing that on this specific die, the reins are held by Victory in the right rather than left hand, with the left hand only holding palm, and the whip ordinarily held in right hand is omitted entirely. He uses all these minor changes to the normal design as evidence for a specific engraving hand that he links to the rare wing symbol (discussion RRC p. 338). All other reverses have the palm branch and reins in the left hand, leaving the right hand free to wave a whip. The wing symbol is rare, none being illustrated in Banti or in CoinArchives. The only illustrated auction example I am aware of is Coin Galleries, December 2004, lot 417 (symbol misdescribed as an apluster, with no comment on the reverse details, sale available on Newman Numismatic Portal) = Birkler & Waddell, December 1982, lot 237. There are only three symbols: grasshopper (common), ear (rare), and wing (rare, and this symbol only occurs where there is a letter P on the obverse, whereas the grasshopper also occurs with multiple variable letters and with no symbol, as does the ear symbol). The taxonomy of this issue is complex. Crawford distinguishes between “control mark”, which in practice is A, B, or C for 337/2e (cf. Hersh, symbols manuscript in the ANS), but in contrast for 337/2f only the letter “P”, which by implication he doesn't regard as a control mark and therefore must stand for something. As this is the issue where E.L.P. (“E LEGE PAPIRIA”) and L.P.D.A.P. occur on the related bronzes (“LEGE PAPIRIA DE ASSIS PONDERE”), perhaps the P stands for Papiria, though this isn't suggested by Crawford, Grueber, Babelon, or Sydenham. In fact, all say nothing at all. Bahrfeldt does comment in Nachtraege volume 3 (1918) and suggests (but without any discussion) that it stands for Publice – presumably meaning public money. A very important rarity, both due to the rare symbol as well as due to the different arrangement of Victory and the omission of the whip. [Andrew McCabe]