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BRUTUS, Ides of March Denarius, the Nelson
Bunker Hunt specimen
43-42 AD,

Minimum Bid: $110,000.00
Seller:      hjbcoins

Ides of March Denarius, the Nelson Bunker Hunt
specimen, 43-42 AD, Cr-508/3, Syd-1301 (R9), C-15
(350 Fr.); Cahn, Quaderni ticinesi 1989, no. 10b,
pl.II (this coin). Obv: BRVT IMP L PLAET CEST Head
of Brutus r. Rx: EID MAR Liberty cap and two
daggers. Ex Sotheby's, New York, 19 June 1990,
N.B.Hunt, 119; Sternberg, 30 Nov. 1973, 10;
Stack's, 20 Nov. 1967, H.P. McCollough, 1032; and
Naville Ars Classica XV, 1930, Woodward, 1315.
Also published in the Hunt exhibition catqalogue,
Wealth of the Ancient World, no. 119. With this
famous reverse type Brutus commemorates his
assassination of Julius Caesar on the notorious
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, which was one of the reasons he had given
to support his plot against Caesar ! 
Condition: This coin is nearly EF on the obv, save
a hairline scratch from in back of Brutus' head to
the tip of the T, which I noticed when I viewed
the coin in 1990 at the Hunt Sale. The rx has two
old hairlines above and to the left of the Liberty
cap, but is otherwise EF. With its pedigree, this
is one of the most famous of all the Eid Mar
coins.

  Weight: 3.72g

Auction closed:  08/23/2000 11:30:52 PDT
Auction ID:  0809J752866