Sale: Triton VII, Lot: 822. Estimate $500.  Closing Date: Monday, 12 January 2004.  Sold For $550. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Anonymous. Circa 225-212 BC. AR Didrachm or Quadrigatus (6.44 gm). Rome mint. Laureate head of Janus; curved truncation / ROMA raised on outlined tablet in exergue, Jupiter in quadriga driven by Victory right, holding thunderbolt and sceptre. Cf. Crawford 28/3 (pl. IV, 3) and 30/1; Sydenham 65; Kestner 91; BMCRR Romano-Campanian 101; RSC 24. Near EF. ($500)

This coin is a wonderful example for displaying the complexity of categorizing the quadrigatus series. Crawford uses a number of criteria to distinguish between his 28/3 and 30/1 type (Crawford, pp. 103-105). He notes that a signature criterion of 28/3 is the ringlet-style hair on the head of Janus, which this coin clearly has. Nonetheless, it is also apparent that Victory is "outside" of the chariot, which Crawford describes as one of the signature features of 30/1. The other signature of 30/1, though, is an incuse ROMA on a raised tablet, which this coin does not have. Compounding this dilemma, it is apparent that example 4 on plate IV in Crawford, attributed to 28/3, is a match with all of these characteristics that apparently went unnoticed by Crawford.