N. Fabius Pictor. Denarius 126, AR 18 mm, 3.84 g, 12h. Helmeted head of Roma r.; behind, *. Below, A – N. Rev. N·FABI – PICTOR Q. Fabius Pictor, wearing cuirass and helmet, seated l. on chair holding apex and spear; beside, shield inscribed QVIRIN. Above, A and below, ROMA. Babelon Fabia 11. Sydenham 517. RBW –. Crawford 268/1.
An apparently unrecorded variety with control mark “A” on reverse
upside down. Lovely old cabinet tone and very fine

Ex Jesus Vico sale 123, 2010, 121. This coin is sold with an export licence issued by the Republic of Italy.
This is the first series with control marks, applied to both sides of coins in the form of letters of the Latin alphabet. Crawford published a paper (‘N.FABI PICTOR’, NC 1965, pp. 149-54) on this series identifying 13 obv. and 19 rev. letters. Letter G on both the reverse and obverse has appeared since then. All 21 letters but T are known on the reverse, showing an unusually high consumption of reverse dies compared to obverses. The reverse die of this coin, published in “P. Debernardi: ‘Some Unlisted Varieties and Rare Dies in Roman Republican Coinage’, NC 2010, pp. 94”, is unique, and represents the last die of the series, using an upside down letter A.