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Classical Numismatic Group, LLC
Triton XXIV  19-20 Jan 2021
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Lot 61

Estimate: 500 USD
Price realized: 2500 USD
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The Triumvirs. Fulvia, first wife of Mark Antony. Circa 41-40 BC. Æ (20mm, 6.10 g, 12h). Eumeneia (as Fulvia) mint. Zmertorix, son of Philonides, magistrate. Draped bust of Fulvia (as Victory) right / Athena standing left, holding shield and reversed spear; [Φ]OYΛOYIANΩN downward to right, [Z]MEPTOPIΓOΣ/ΦIΛΩNIΔOY in two lines downward to left. RPC I 3139; SNG München –; BMC 20-1; SNG Copenhagen –. Dark green patina with reddish earthen highlights. Good VF. Rare.

From the Peter J. Merani Collection. Ex David Freedman Collection (Triton V, 15 January 2002), lot 506.

Fulvia was first married to P. Clodius, the Roman firebrand. After his violent death in 52 BC, she married C. Scribonius Curio, who likewise met an untimely end in Africa. She married Mark Antony in 44 BC, and became an outspoken defender of his interests in Rome while he campaigned in the east (and enjoyed the attentions of Cleopatra). The city of Eumenia was re-named Fulviana in her honor by Antony's partisans. By 40 BC, Fulvia's strident attacks on Octavian had provoked a reaction, and she had to flee first to southern Italy and then to Greece. She met Antony at Athens, where he upbraided her for antagonizing Octavian when he was trying to maintain a semblance of cordial relations. Fulvia died at Sicyon shortly thereafter. Some examples of these coins show that the ethnic was removed from the die and two countermarks were applied, one that was the monogram of old Eumeneia, and the other probably of the magistrate Zmertorix, possibly proclaiming that he did not think such a renaming of the city was a good idea in the first place.
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