This variety of denarius has been found in hoards in throughout Italy where they are concentrated in the central and southern regions on the west and east coasts though one even was found north of the Po Valley, in addition to locations all over the Iberian peninsula and one even on the island of Sardinia. This coin, minted in end of the 3rd century BCE, is one of the issues from the earliest phase of the denarius coinage, produced in the context of the 2nd Punic War (218 – 201 BCE) a struggle for the existence of Rome itself. The whole of the reverse design is encircled in a solid ring a common feature like the ring of dots surrounding the obverse design.Ĭan you tell us something about the context in which your coin was minted? This inscription is typical of Roman coins, appearing on either side from very early in the history of Roman coinage. Underneath the image of the riders is a feather, another control mark, and below that, beneath a horizontal line, in a position numismatists call “in exergue,” is the word ROMA, the name of the city and goddess. This scene is thought to represent the divine twins charging to the Romans’ aid at the Battle of Lake Regillus in 496 BCE, when legend has it that Dioscuri fought alongside the Romans against their enemies the Latin League and the old Etruscan king Tarquinius Superbus. The young brothers are riding a pair of galloping horses towards the right with their lances leveled and they each are wearing their characteristic round cap known as a pileus. On the other side of the coin, the tails or “reverse” side, is an image of the sons of Zeus, the twins Castor and Pollux known as the Dioscuri. The whole obverse design is surrounded by a dotted line border also common on Roman coinages. This is a denominational mark indicating that this coin was worth ten asses, an as beings the largest common denomination of Roman bronze coinage. Behind the head of Roma, if one looks closely the letter X, a Roman numeral ten, is to be found. This rod is a control mark and such marks are common on ancient coinages, Roman and otherwise, and this particular mark occurs on other issues of denarii and coinages of other denominations as well. In front of the head of Roma is a vertical rod, perhaps a Roman measuring rod called a decempeda or ten foot rod. Here she appears wearing an Attic style helmet though in earlier coinages dated to before 225 BCE she wore a different Phrygian style helm. Roma was the deified personification of the city of Rome and the Roman state and she had appeared on Roman coinages since the earliest cast bronze coins of the early 3rd century BCE. On the “heads” side of the coin, which is generally what numismatists call the “obverse” and doesn’t always feature a head, is a head of the goddess Roma facing to the right. It weighs 3.39 grams and since it was likely minted between 206 BCE and 200 BCE it is very likely over 2,200 years old.
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