My First Roman Republic

and also my first serrated denarius.....


L. Papius. 79 BC. AR Serrate Denarius. Head of Juno Sospita
right, wearing goat’s skin headdress; aplustre behind / Griffin springing right; prow
below. L. PAPI in ex. Crawford 384/1 (symbols 134); Sydenham 773;
18.38 mm, 3.9g

a cool little coin were it is proposed that the symbols represent trade guilds, so this coin would represent a sailors trade or guild as the symbol on the obverse is an aplustre which is an ornamental appendage of wood at the stern of a Roman ship, usually spreading like a fan and curved like a bird's feather. and the symbol on the reverse is the prow of a ship.

according to a reference i found on these there are at least 232 varieties of symbol pairs, what a set that would make!

i find this coin very interesting as it has Juno - Queen of the Gods on obv. and the Griffin - a legendary creature with the body, tail, and back legs of a lion; the head and wings of an eagle; and an eagle's talons as its front feet. which was thought of as king of all creatures on rev.
please post your L. Papius coins....

 

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I love coins with mythological creatures...wish I had one.

 

Nice capture for your first Republican! Congrats!

 

I consider this an excellent type to make your first Republican. I doubt you will decide to get 231 more to call it a set but having a type with the symbol pairs strikes me as a good thing. Neither of mine are as nice nor have any more interesting symbols (there are some really special ones). I suspect between those of us here we could come up with a dozen or two varieties but 232 symbol pairs really seem more interesting than just numbering the dies.

 

I'd say that's a great choice for a first RR!

 

Oooh, nice! A Papius denarius has been on "the list" from near the beginning but I never seem to capture one (Martin must be buying all of them )

 

One of my Papius:

 

Nice keep them comming

 

Next on my want list is a Roman Republic.

 

Beautiful Republic coin which are my favorite Roman coins .

 

As others have said, nice choice!

Uhm, how many does Martin have?

 

Looks like he has 29 in his Forvm gallery

For Martin, 29 is a very low number compared to his Probus and Septimius Severus collections

 

Well, it's a good start .

Thanks for the link... Martin's collection is pretty staggering in terms of size and scope!

 

ken454 => man, that's a sweet OP-Papius (gawd, don't let Martin see you hangin' around his fishin' hole!!)



I have one example as well ... very cool coins (I'd love to collect all 231)

 

Looks like a Snake on the obverse and Doggy on the reverse... LOL, I see why you captured it!

 

yah I love it!! (animals galore!!)

=> we call it a dog and snake, but it might be a fox or something else, eh?

... four legs and a tail anyway

 

Bante calls it a volpe (fox) but I see a crocodile. Most of the symbols have closer relationships than a fox and snake would so two reptiles makes sense. I also see a resemblence to the pose of the early form of crocodile as seen on the Nemausis dupondii. Note the pose of the legs and scaly ridge on the back.

 

The "closer relationship" makes sense, but the scales could just be flow lines. Steve's Papius "crocodile" looks it has ears.

Given the wide range of fantastical elephants that were engraved into ancient coins, I guess it's too much to expect for Steve's reverse animal to actually resemble whatever it is supposed to be.

 

Whatever it is => Martin and I refer to it as "Dog and Snake"



... good times

 

Naw... I think it is Heart's "Dog and Butterfly"...