£1.5m for coin ‘worn by Caesar’s killer’

MINTED to celebrate the assassination of Julius Caesar, this Roman coin may even have been worn around the neck of one of his murderers.

Now the rare gold Eid Mar (Ides of March) coin is set to fetch £1.5million at auction.

It is one of only three known to exist and is unique in having a hole in it so that it could be worn as a pendant.

It has been on display at the British Museum for the past decade, on long-term loan from a private collector who has now decided to sell it.

Caesar was killed by Roman senators led by Brutus and Cassius on the Ides of March – March 15 – in 44BC.

The coin, due to be sold in Zurich, Switzerland, on Monday, bears a portrait of Brutus. The reverse has two daggers representing Brutus and co-conspirator Cassius, plus a pileus – a felt cap worn by freed slaves, alluding to Rome’s freedom from the ‘tyranny of Caesar’.

The Eid Mar coins were struck in 42BC by a military mint travelling with Brutus and Cassius’s forces. This rare gold version – more were made in silver – was likely to have been worn by a highranking supporter and, it has been speculated, one of Caesar’s murderers.

Arturo Russo, of specialist ancient coin firm Numismatica Ars Classica, which is selling this one, said it commemorated ‘one of the most important moments in western history’.