Watch List notes:

M. Iunius Brutus and Q. Caepius. Denarius, military mint 43-42, AR 3.89 g. Laureate head of Apollo r. Rev. Q CAEPIO – BRVTVS – IMP Trophy bearing two shields, below, male and female captive. Sydenham 1293. C 8. RBW –. Crawford 503/1.
Extremely rare, undoubtedly among the rarest denarii of the Republican series.
A very attractive portrait of Apollo of fine style and a lovely old
cabinet tone. Good very fine

Ex Hirsch XXIV, 1909, Weber, 730; Hess 20 May 1912, Prowe, 932; Glendining's 2 April 1952, Ryan, 1893 and UBS 78, 2008, 1153 sales.
This is undoubtedly one of the rarest denarii of the entire Roman Republican series. For instance it was missing, among the others, in the collections of Nicholas (Leu 17) Leo Benz, Student and his Mentor, RBW and Alba Longa (Pepe Fernandez Molina).
Despite his original adherence to the Pompeian cause in the Caesarean Civil War (49-45 BC), M. Junius Brutus was forgiven and went on to enjoy the friendship and patronage of Julius Caesar. Thanks to the latter, Brutus became pontifex and then governor of Cisalpine Gaul in 47 BC. After this he was made praetor urbanus (the senior magistrate in Rome after the consuls) in early 44 BC. Despite all of this, Brutus was deeply troubled when Caesar assumed the unprecedented title of dictator perpetuo ("dictator in perpetuity"), which basically gave him powers equivalent to that of a king. Burdened by the fact that his family claimed descent from L. Junius Brutus, the man responsible for the expulsion of the Etruscan kings from Rome and the foundation of the Republic, Brutus led a senatorial conspiracy that assassinated Caesar on 15 March 44 BC. Somewhat naively, he and his co-conspirators allowed Caesar's adopted nephew, Octavian, and his lieutenant, Mark Antony, to live and turn public sentiment against them. Brutus and the other Liberators were forced to flee Rome to the Greek East where they set about making preparations for the inevitable war that would come. The Liberators were ultimately defeated at the Battle of Philippi in October 42 BC. Realizing that all hope was lost Brutus committed suicide. This extremely rare denarius was struck by a mobile military mint moving with Brutus during several plundering campaigns into Lycia undertaken in the spring and early summer of 42 BC. He had initially requested a contribution of money and soldiers from the Lycian League in preparation for the final showdown of the Liberators with the Triumvirs at Philippi, but this was refused. Unwilling to take no for an answer, Brutus led his forces into Lycia, plundering the smaller cities and villages and laying siege to the capital at Xanthus. Once the latter was captured, he carried off its wealth and consigned the city to the flames. The present coin, which could very well have been produced from silver taken from Xanthus or other Lycian cities, features an unusual obverse depiction of Apollo that is almost certainly derived from contemporary hemidrachms of the Lycian League. The god is shown with tight curls wearing not only a laurel wreath, but also a taenia. This double headgear is very unusual. On Greek and Roman coins Apollo is usually shown wearing either the laurel wreath or the taenia, but almost never both. The trophy with seated captives on the reverse probably refers to the victories in Lycia or perhaps to earlier victories in Thrace for which Brutus was acclaimed as imperator. This coin is among the last struck by Brutus with his adopted name Q. Caepio Brutus (he had been adopted posthumously by his uncle Q. Servilius Caepio around 59 BC). By the late summer of 42 BC as war with Octavian and Antony approached, the coinage of Brutus named him only as "Brutus" or "M. Brutus," indicting a return to the use of his birth name, M. Junius Brutus.