443, Lot: 474. Estimate $300. Sold for $507. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

C. Considius Nonianus. 56 BC. AR Denarius (18.5mm, 4.10 g, 3h). Rome mint. Laureate and draped bust of Venus Erycina right, wearing stephane / Temple on summit of rocky mountain surrounded by wall with towers on each side and gate in center; ERVC above gate. Crawford 424/1; Sydenham 886; Considia 1; Type as RBW 1522. Good VF, lovely cabinet toning, a few light scratches and deposits, reverse struck off center.

From the Andrew McCabe Collection. Ex Elsen 126 (12 September 2015), lot 92.

The temple on this coin is that of Venus at Eryx in western Sicily, built atop the 2200-foot Mount Erice. Despite that modest dimension, no less than Virgil esteemed it as an especially lofty mountain in the Aeneid Book 12, 697ff.: “Now Aeneas the leader hearing the name of Turnus left the walls, and left the high fortress, cast aside all delay, broke off from every task, and exultant with delight clashed his weapons fiercely: vast as Mount Athos, or Mount Eryx.” The designer of this coin device took some efforts to make the temple seem set far away and at a great rocky height. Contrast the sublime success of this beautiful design to the utter failure of Scaurus and Hypsaeus as discussed on the prior lot. Crawford in RRC p. 448 associates the coin with support for Pompey, who was reputed to have succeeded Sulla as a favorite of Venus – whose temple is on this coin. Nathan Elkins, in his book on numismatic architecture, has nothing to say at all. He includes the Crawford reference as-is, but comments on neither the aesthetic design of the coin, nor on the architectural design or situation of the temple. [Andrew McCabe]