| Classical Numismatic Group > Triton XXVII | Auction date: 9 January 2024 |
| Lot number: 617 Price realized: 5,000 USD (Approx. 4,580 EUR) Note: Prices do not include buyer's fees. | Show similar lots on CoinArchives Find similar lots in upcoming auctions on  |
| Lot description: The Caesarians. Julius Caesar. 42 BC. AR Denarius (18mm, 3.55 g, 9h). Rome mint; L. Mussidius Longus, moneyer. Laureate head right / Rudder, cornucopia on globe, winged caduceus, and apex; L • MVSSIDIVS • LONGVS in semicircle above. Crawford 494/39a; CRI 116; Sydenham 1096a; RSC 29; BMCRR Rome 4238-9; Kestner 3750; RBW 1742; CNR I 108/4 (this coin). Toned, light marks. Near EF. An attractive portrait of Julius Caesar. Fine style. Ex G. Hirsch (16 April 1958), lot 252; Cahn 71 (14 October 1931) lot 1372. Lucius Mussidius Longus is a moneyer with an otherwise unknown cursus honorum. His nomen Mussidius indicates that he was a novus homo, or up-and-coming man with no long family pedigree. As such, he would have allied himself to any potential long-term power base. In 42 BC, as the Second Triumvirate was defeating Caesar's assassins, Mussidius oversaw the striking of this denarius of the now-deceased and soon to be deified dictator, a clear nod to the Caesarian cause. Apparently, such a move benefitted the gens Mussidia. A distant relation, T. Mussidius Pollianus, was a senator under the new regime in the first century AD. Estimate: 2000 USD |  |
