Roma Numismatics Ltd
E-Sale 65 19 Dec 2019
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L. Servius Rufus AR Denarius. Rome, 43 BC. Bare head of Brutus right; L•SERVIVS RVFVS around / The Dioscuri standing facing, both holding spears and with swords hanging from waist. Crawford 515/2; CRI 324; RSC Sulpicia 10. 3.23g, 20mm, 1h.
Good Very Fine / Near Very Fine. Banker's mark to obv., some corrosion and delamination to rev. Lightly toned, with an excellent portrait. Very Rare.
From the inventory of a German dealer.
The portrait on this issue of a moneyer known only from his coins bears a remarkable resemblance to Brutus, and it has been suggested that this image could have been a veiled expression of political sympathy toward Brutus' cause. The Republic was in a state of fractious civil war: the consuls Hirtius and Pansa, along with Octavian as propraetor, opposed the forces of Antony in Cisalpine Gaul; the liberators under Brutus and Cassius were meanwhile ravaging the territories in Illyria, Thrace and Macedonia, and Asia Minor.
The moneyers of this uncertain period hence appear to have deliberately employed ambiguous types on their coins: an ancestor's portrait that resembled Octavian on the denarii of M. Arrius Secundus; a head of Victory resembling Fulvia, the wife of Marc Antony, on C. Numonius Vaala's aurei; and here the portrait of some ancestor or other which in fact most closely resembles Brutus.
Good Very Fine / Near Very Fine. Banker's mark to obv., some corrosion and delamination to rev. Lightly toned, with an excellent portrait. Very Rare.
From the inventory of a German dealer.
The portrait on this issue of a moneyer known only from his coins bears a remarkable resemblance to Brutus, and it has been suggested that this image could have been a veiled expression of political sympathy toward Brutus' cause. The Republic was in a state of fractious civil war: the consuls Hirtius and Pansa, along with Octavian as propraetor, opposed the forces of Antony in Cisalpine Gaul; the liberators under Brutus and Cassius were meanwhile ravaging the territories in Illyria, Thrace and Macedonia, and Asia Minor.
The moneyers of this uncertain period hence appear to have deliberately employed ambiguous types on their coins: an ancestor's portrait that resembled Octavian on the denarii of M. Arrius Secundus; a head of Victory resembling Fulvia, the wife of Marc Antony, on C. Numonius Vaala's aurei; and here the portrait of some ancestor or other which in fact most closely resembles Brutus.