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| Classical Numismatic Group > Auction 132 | Auction date: 18 May 2026 |
| Lot number: 705 Price realized: 37,500 USD (Approx. 32,213 EUR) Note: Prices do not include buyer's fees. | Show similar lots on CoinArchives Find similar lots in upcoming auctions on  |
| Lot description: Anonymous. Third century BC. Æ Aes Grave Tressis or Triple-Nummus(?) (85mm, 948 g, 12h). Northern Apulia, Venusia(?) mint. Head of young Bacchus left, wearing ivy wreath with berries / Head and neck of antelope left. Unpublished in the standard references, but for similar reverse type Cf. ICC 268 (janiform head of maenad with Silenus); cf. Thurlow-Vecchi Addendum 288 (same); cf. Haeberlin p. 280, tx. A, 1 (same); HN Italy p. 51 (Uncertain aes grave, introductory paragraph); cf. Sydenham, Aes Grave 1926, 349 (Tressis or Tripondius). Brown and green patina with natural earthen deposits. VF. Unique. CNG would like to extend our thanks to Italo Vecchi, author of Italian Cast Coinage, who assisted with attribution of this unique piece and will add this coin to the next version of ICC. Italo writes: "The tentative identification of this extraordinary cast Tressis/Triple-nummus to the mint of Venusia, originally a settlement of the Peucetti, which became a Latin colony in 291 BC following the Third Samnite War, is based on several factors apart from its obvious similarity to the Tressis now in the Münzkabinett of Berlin Staatliche Museem (Haeberlin p. 280, pl. A, 1). According to Haeberlin it was acquired by the Berlin museum from a private collection in Naples, just before the printing in 1910 of his magnum opus, Aes Grave, only 180km from the ancient site of Venusia, near modern Venosa, and the most southerly mint of all Italic Cast Coinages. The weight standard is that of the earliest coinage of Venusia based on a Nummus of about 321g, comfortably accommodating the metrology of the above and Berlin examples. The large standard cast and struck bronze denominations at Luceria and Venusia were defined as Nummi (singular Nummus), the Latin equivalent of the Greek nomós (Varro, Ling. 5.173; Melville Jones TNR, p. 939), meaning 'custom, habit, practice, rule, law,' in this case: 'regular or statutory unit of currency,' cf. ICC Venusia 354. The bulging bronze fabric of the cast flan is similar to those of Venusia Æ Nummus ICC 351 as well as Tressis ICC 268. A third important element is the general similarity in portrait style of the obverse head of a young Bacchus, again from the city of Venusia, cf. Æ Nummus, HN Italy 719." Estimate: 3000 USD |  |
