Holy grail ‘Ides of March’ aureus - $3.5m

An ‘Ides of March’ aureus is one of three known examples. It was recently discovered hidden away in a private European collection. The coin was previously unrecorded, and was submitted for grading. The coin remains in mint condition and has been described as “the undisputed masterpiece of ancient coinage.”

About 100 silver examples are known to exist. There were two in gold; the first is in the British Museum on loan and the second is in the Deutsche Bundesbank collection. The newly discovered example hit the auction block on October 29 at Roma Numismatics Limited in London. The conservative pre-auction estimate was £500,000. The price when the hammer fell was $3.5m.