Roman Republic. L. Julius Bursio, Rome, 85 BC
Roman Republic. L. Julius Bursio, Rome, 85 BC
AR Denarius, 4.01g (21mm, 12).
Male head to right, with attributes of Apollo, Mercury and Neptune; Cupid standing to right (control symbol) behind / Victory driving quadriga to right, holding reins and wreath
Pedigree: From the LNB Collection of J Bursio Denarii; Ex Numismatica Varesi, Auction 29, 16 March 1999, lot 29.
References: Crawford 352/1c; De Ruyter obv. die 442; BMCRR Rome 2508 ff. var. (control symbol and number); RSC Julia 5a; BM 2002,0102.2693 (same dies)
Grade: Practically no wear and with pleasing luster. Off center strike on both faces, but all details on flan. Some weakness on reverse angel, crackling on edges. Small area of corrosion on r. edge of obverse. Lovely symbol of cupid on obverse. VF+/EF. (rr1252)
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Belonging to the extremely famous Gens Julus, Lucius Julius Brusio was appointed as Triumvir Monetalis for 85 BC. That year he struck an extensive series of highly interesting denarii.
In the die study conducted by P. H. De Ruyter, it was discovered that there are actually over 450 distinct obverse control marks. These are found to the left of the obverse male head and consist of a trident and second symbol. In the case of this particular coin, a small standing cupid. Since these obverse die marks are so small and the differences are extremely minor, their actually use is unknown. As such, they probably were not used to distinguish an individual die. A complication arises with the fact that a number of official obverse dies actually share the same control mark.
This particular coin is a die paring of obverse die 442 and reverse die LXV. At the time De Ruyter conducted his die study in 1996, there were only seven attested examples of this particular pairing. Only two have recently come to market.