Maison Palombo
Auction 19 12 Dec 2020
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République romaine - Cn. Lentulus
Denier - Rome (75/74).
3.89g - Cr. 393/1a
Superbe à FDC - NGC CHOICE AU (5/5 et 4/5)
The date of the emission was suggested by Michael Crawford to be 75 BC. But, whilst the emission Crawford 393/1a bears the rather simple reverse legend CN LEN Q EX SC (" Cnaeus Lentullus quaestor by decision of the Senate"), the emission 393/1b bears the much more unusual legend LENT CVR X FL EX SC (" Lentullus curator denariis flandis ex senatus consulto"). This has been studied in depth, notably by Wilhelm Hollstein in 1993. In January 74 BC, Pompey had sent a letter to the Senate (as recorded in Sallust, hist. 2.98), claiming to have exhausted his own resources and begging for funds to pay for his troops in Hispania (Spain): he was indeed fighting Quintus Sertorius, a rebel Roman general who had been outlawed by Sulla but who was supported by a majority of Iberian tribes. These coins must have been the answer to Pompey's request, struck in Rome first by Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Marcellinus as quaestor urbanus, and then (for the second - rarer - emission) as paymaster.
Denier - Rome (75/74).
3.89g - Cr. 393/1a
Superbe à FDC - NGC CHOICE AU (5/5 et 4/5)
The date of the emission was suggested by Michael Crawford to be 75 BC. But, whilst the emission Crawford 393/1a bears the rather simple reverse legend CN LEN Q EX SC (" Cnaeus Lentullus quaestor by decision of the Senate"), the emission 393/1b bears the much more unusual legend LENT CVR X FL EX SC (" Lentullus curator denariis flandis ex senatus consulto"). This has been studied in depth, notably by Wilhelm Hollstein in 1993. In January 74 BC, Pompey had sent a letter to the Senate (as recorded in Sallust, hist. 2.98), claiming to have exhausted his own resources and begging for funds to pay for his troops in Hispania (Spain): he was indeed fighting Quintus Sertorius, a rebel Roman general who had been outlawed by Sulla but who was supported by a majority of Iberian tribes. These coins must have been the answer to Pompey's request, struck in Rome first by Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Marcellinus as quaestor urbanus, and then (for the second - rarer - emission) as paymaster.