443, Lot: 470. Estimate $200. Sold for $140. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

M. Plaetorius M.f. Cestianus. 57 BC. AR Denarius (17mm, 3.69 g, 6h). Rome mint. Draped bust of Fortuna right; ivy leaf behind / Half-length, draped, facing bust of Sors on tablet inscribed [SORS] below. Crawford 405/2; Sydenham 801; Plaetoria 10; Type as RBW 1448; CNR Plaetoria 28/8 (this coin illustrated). Near VF, toned, light porosity, banker’s mark on reverse. Rare.

From the Andrew McCabe Collection. Ex Kress 135 (15 March 1966), lot 248; G. Hirsch XLI (9 December 1964), lot 187.

An illustration of this coin in a 1960s sale catalogue was used by Banti in CNR as the type example for a symbol of unidentifiable (to him) shape, catalogued as CNR Plaetoria 28/8 (this coin). Hersh, in his symbols manuscript available at the ANS, identifies this as an ivy leaf turned downward, and cites a likely die match as BMCRR Rome 3529, reg. 1902, 0206.146, where the ivy leaf is easily verifiable. [Andrew McCabe]