C. Hosidius C.f. Geta. Denarius serratus 68, AR 19 mm, 4.02 g, 4h. GETA – III·VIR Draped bust of Diana r., with bow and quiver over shoulder. Rev. Boar r. wounded by spear and attacked by hound; in exergue, C·HOSIDI C F. Babelon Hosidia 2 var. Sydenham 903 var. P. Debernardi, Some Unlisted Varieties and Rare Dies in Roman Republican Coinage, in NC 2010, fig. 21 (this coin illustrated). RBW 1458. Crawford 407/2 note.An extremely rare variety. Light iridescent tone, a banker’s mark
on obverse, otherwise about extremely fine

Ex Gorny & Mosch sale 191, 2010, 1969. This coin is sold with an export licence issued by the Republic of Italy.
This is the coin depicted in Fig.21 of the paper ‘Some Unlisted Varieties and Rare Dies in Roman Republican Coinage’, NC 2010. The production of Hosidius consists of two types: /1, serrate, and /2, with regular flan and slightly different obverse design. This coin has the design of 407/2 but a serrate flan. Until the previously cited paper, this kind of hybrid (a few other examples are known) were considered merely as mint errors, but in that case one might have expected the occurrence of a greater number of dies among them. The pattern described in the cited paper suggests a deliberate policy at the mint. The explanation may be that, when the mint decided to switch from serrate to normal flans, a stock of serrate flans remained unused. By then the old 407/1 dies were broken or worn out, and it was decided to employ a couple of the new 407/2 dies in order to use up the old serrate flans, before the regular flans of 407/2 were introduced. The task may have taken up the whole life of the first obverse die, before the second die finished off the serrate flans and moved on to the regular flans of 407/2. These hybrid coins would thus form a small subgroup transitional between 407/1 and 407/2.