Watch List notes:

The Roman Republic

Knife (first) series. Denarius, Central Italy (?) circa 211-208, AR 4.38 g. Helmeted head of Roma r.; behind, X. Rev. The Dioscuri galloping r.; below, knife and in exergue, ROMA. Sydenham –. RBW 499 (this coin). Crawford –.
Apparently unique and unrecorded. Wonderful old cabinet tone and good very fine
Ex NAC 23, 2002, 1324 and NAC 61, 2011, RBW part I, 492 sales.
This unique and unrecorded denarius is not to be confused with the rare issue Cr. 109/1, which differs for style on both its obverse and reverse. In our opinion, this exceptional issue has to be dated slightly after 211 due to resemblances with the obverse of Cr. 46/1 (helmet Sydenham A 1) and the reverse of Cr. 53/2 (the form of the Dioscuri and the shape of the letter A) and Cr. 54/1 (similar exergual line). All these different elements lead us to conclude that this coin marks the first and completely unknown first series of the knife.