HJB-FAMOUS BRUTUS "IDES OF MARCH" DENARIUS
$1,235.00
Apr-18-00
seller hjbcoins 

BRUTUS. Ides of March Denarius (plated ancient copy), 43-42 BC, 3.00g. Cr-508/3,Syd-1301 (R9), C-15

Obv: BRVT [IMP] L PIAET (sic) [CEST] Head of Brutus
r. Rx: [E]ID MAR Liberty cap and two daggers. 

With this famous reverse type
Brutus commemorates his assassination of Julius Caesar on the
Ides of March, 44 BC, and claims that the deed was done to secure
liberty for the Roman people (the liberty cap). This sentiment 
does not prevent him, however, from placing his own portrait on 
the coin, like a Hellenistic monarch and like Caesar himself 
shortly before his death! Our coin is a contemporary coin 
(ancient copy) from unofficial dies, in competent style but 
with an engraver's error in the obverse legend, PIAET for  PLAET. 
In his corpus of EID MAR denarii in Quaderni ticinese
1989, H.A. Cahn lists five such unofficial plated specimens, two 
in Paris and three in auction catalogues. Visible hole through
piece.