Featured My first Roman Provincial Coin from Hispania

Donna, Attached below is a Republican provincial denarius from the Narbo Mint that I overlooked. I kept this one because it depicts the famous Celtic chief Bituitus .


It helps if you post the coin .

 

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Oh wow that is an awesome coin!

I love the OG pre-debasement denarii.

Mind if I ask how much you paid for that beauty?

If you don’t want to share that’s ok but I figured no harm in asking.

 

Blake, When I posted to the thread I forgot to add the coin. Duh. I bought that denarius about 50 years ago for $15.00. I can remember showing it to my father & he said I overpaid for it . $15.00 for a nice looking Republican denarius was the going rate back then...

 

Only $15??

Wow! I'd happily pay 10x as much for a coin like that. xD

Then again 50 years ago $15 was probably more like $100 today.

My dad said when he was a kid in the 1960s he could have a great weekend for a dollar.

Today a dollar won't even buy you a scoop of ice cream or ticket to the movies. :/

 

Blake, Your dad saying he had a great weekend for a buck in the 1960s sounds like a stretch . I spent my teen years in the 1960s & I can tell you first hand that you needed more than $1.00 to have a good weekend . When my brother & I reached the age of 13 our father stopped giving us a $1.00 a week allowance & told us to get a job ! Just to spite him we did get a job on weekends selling balloons, cotton candy, cheap flags & other junk at parades & festivals around Rochester, NY . We worked for an old Jewish vendor who let us keep half of the proceeds of what we sold. On a good weekend we could make $15-$20 each . Life was good back then.

 

Here’s another example of Bituitus. I was unaware it was from a provincial mint. Thanks, @Al Kowsky! I bought this for the awesome Celtic warrior.

Rome Republic, L. Porcius Liciniuss, circa 112-109 BC. AR denarius. Head of Roma, Reverse shows a Celtic warrior, nude, in a biga, with a spear, shield, and carnyx. The Celtic warrior on the reverse is thought to represent Bituitus, king of the Averni. This king led an alliance of the Allobroges and the Averni which suffered catastrophic defeat by the Romans under Fabius Maximus in 121 BC. This led to the establishment of the Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis. Bituitus was spared and lived in exile thereafter in Alba Fucens in the Abruzzo.

 

@DonnaML I guess you have missed quite few of my posts.
Very very nice write up very informative,
And a nice coin.

 

Well the way he explained it by a "good weekend" as a kid he meant going to a movie for $0.25, getting an ice cream for $0.25, and then picking up a comic book for another $0.25 with a quarter left to do whatever else he wanted.

 

@DonnaML Fantastic article, well researched with a terrific example!

 

I'm sure I saw them, but it's difficult to absorb all the wonderful information people post, until one has a coin oneself that makes it relevant!