![]() The $4.2 million was the most paid for an ancient coin, according to the Numismatic Guaranty Corp.īeale is charged with grand larceny in the first degree and several other felonies and was released on his own recognizance. ![]() Richard Beale, 38, director of London-based auction house Roma Numismatics, put it up for sale on his company’s website and over several years shopped it at coin shows in the United States and Europe before it was sold in October 2020. Ultimately, the forces who favored the dead Caesar, led by Mark Antony and others, defeated Brutus and his men in October of 42 BC at the Second Battle of Philippi, and Brutus and Cassius took their own lives.Īccording to investigators, the coin is first thought to have come to market between 20. Historians see irony in the fact that Brutus, who had admonished Caesar before the murder for aggrandizing himself by putting his face on Roman coinage, wound up doing the same with his own coins ![]() Beneath the symbols is the Latin inscription “EID MAR,” designating the Ides of March – March 15, 44 BC – the fateful day on which the conspirators left Caesar dead on the floor of the Roman Senate. Overall, the image is meant to celebrate the murder as an act by which Rome was liberated from Caesar’s tyranny. The daggers stand for Brutus and Cassius and reflect the manner of Caesar’s death, experts say, while the cap is a symbol of liberty that was worn by freed slaves. The reverse features two daggers on either side of a cap known as a pileus. The latter stands for Lucius Plaetorius Cestianus, who was a treasurer of sorts for Brutus and oversaw the minting and assaying of his coins. The front, or obverse, of the coin features an engraved side view of Brutus and the Latin letters “BRVT IMP” and “L PLAET CEST.” Experts say the former stands for “Brutus, Imperator,” with imperator referring not to emperor but to commander. ![]() “The Eid Mar is an undisputed masterpiece of ancient coinage,” Mark Salzberg, the chair of Numismatic Guaranty Corp., who verified the coin but does not research provenances, said in a statement in 2020.Įxperts said they believe the coin was likely discovered more than a decade ago in an area of current-day Greece where Brutus and his civil war ally, Gaius Cassius Longinus, were encamped with their army. A silver version of the coin was also minted and about 100 are known to exist. Experts said the coin is about the size of a nickel and weighs about 8 grams, and is one of only three known to be in circulation. ![]()
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