I (re)learned a couple of things when I bought a MVSA recently: always take a list of what I have to a coin store there is an "easy" way to tell the MVSA coins apart I was close to one of my favorite coin stores and decided to stop and see if they had any RR coins. Turns out they did - Q. Pomponius Musa Obverse - Head of Apollo, R; behind wreath Reverse - Polyhymnia facing, wearing wreath; Q.POMPONI, R; MVUA, L Rome, 66 BC Cr 410/10a Grueber 3617 I did not have a list of my coins with me, but I figured since I only had one MVSA what is the chance this is the same as the one I have. After all, there are 10 types with several minor variations. With my luck...... about 100% I like to confirm attributions, so I read the descriptions in Crawford & found I have a difficult time telling the differences in some of the reverse characters. It is much easier to read the symbol behind Apollo. There are 10 types of symbol and they match the reverse character. Both of mine have wreaths. 410/1 Q.POMPONI MVUA 410/2 Lyre key 410/3 Scroll 410/4 Scepter 410/5 Two flutes, crossed 410/6 Flower 410/7 Tortoise 410/8 Star 410/9 Sandal 410/10 Wreath Can we get one of each in this thread? Post yours.
I just bough my first muse last month, Polyhymnia same as yours. 9 more to go. Volodya, FWIW, wrote an article that was recently published in the RBW festschrift (sp?) on the commonly misidentified Erato for Terpsichore. Perhaps he'll give an overview if he reads this. My coin ex Imhoof-Blumer, Hirsch 1907.
For anyone who missed it, here's a link to my "Erato or Terpsichore" paper in the RBW tribute volume: https://www.academia.edu/19428330/Erato_or_Terpsichore_A_Reassessment You'll need to be registered at Academia.edu to access it.
Wonderful topic and coin posts!!!! Unfortunately, that moneyer has somehow perfected a way to elude me
Here is my nice Musa: Crawford 410/8 Urania, the muse of astronomy, "pointing with rod at globe on tripod stand" Sear 359. 66 BC.
So what's your secret? Are you holding out on us and using the time machine for yourself to nab coins fresh off the Roman mint?
There is one problem with your attribution...the date. While Crawford assigns this issue to 66BC, Hersh and Walker showed in The Mesagne Hoard, ANS Museum Notes 29 (1984), that the date must be 10 years later, 56BC. This article, written 10 years after Crawford was published and based on then recent hoard evidence, is an important update to Crawford's dating of 1st century BC material.
I have used both dates in my files. I use Crawford's dating when posting coin information because that is an accepted reference. Hersh & Walker present compelling arguments that the coins of MVSA should be later. Michael Harlan in Roman Republican Moneyers & Their Coins 63 BC to 49 BC omits MVSA's coins. I had not seen Volodya's interesting article on the subject in the link above.
