Online surprises in Roman auction
A second tranche of The Michael Kelly Collection of Roman Coins was recently sold by Spink via e-Auction. Some 683 lots were involved. By sale’s end on Nov. 7, one…
A second tranche of The Michael Kelly Collection of Roman Coins was recently sold by Spink via e-Auction. Some 683 lots were involved.
By sale’s end on Nov. 7, one lot stood head and shoulders above the others: a 3.87 g silver denarius of Marcus Junius Brutus (54 BCE). The obverse showed a profile of Libertas, the reverse consul Lucius Junius Brutus walking between two lictors (Crawford 433/1; Sydenham 906). Lightly toned and in a most desirable EF, it took an easy $3,136 [£2,400] on a somewhat conservative £50-60 estimate.
The Emperor Hadrian also yielded a pleasant and unexpected return for the vendor by way of a further 3.37 g silver denarius that came in a more than acceptable aEF. The bare-headed emperor on the obverse is complemented by Indulgentia seated on the reverse (RSC 854; RIC 213). This time the estimate was £60-80, but the bidders ignored that suggestion and took the final price to almost 20 times upper estimate, or $2,038 [£1,560].
Full catalog details and hammer prices are available at www.spink.com.
A premium of 20 percent has been included in all prices shown. These have been converted at a rate of 1GBP = 1.31USD.
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