70, Lot: 1. Estimate $200. Sold for $120. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

GAUL, Narbo. Octavian. Circa 40 BC. Æ As (30mm, 15.68 gm). Bare head right / Prow of galley, with superstructure and mast, right. RPC I 518; Amandry, et al., "Notes de numismatique narbonnaise. V. Les as d'Octave à la proue émis à Narbonne en 40 avant J.-C.," RAN (1986), 57-77; FITA pp. 41-3. Fine, nice green patina. Scarce.

Until recently the identification of the mint from which these asses were issued has been debated. Grant, FITA pp. 41-3, attributed the coins to Arles as he erroneously saw the letters AR on a specimen in his collection. A small hoard of these coins, found in 1973 at Narbonne, has led to attribute the issue to a mint there. These coins were probably struck in early to mid-40 BC, when Octavian was in Gaul, or perhaps in the autumn of that year when Agrippa took command of that region.