Ancient - L. Papius Denarius

I still haven't got the snake/dog symbol pair and will wait for a half decent one that I can afford.....

I wasn't sure that you would want me to inflict my Papius coins on you again.

I won't inflict them all but here are some of them:-
Symbol pair Dolphin wrapped around anchor / Hippocamp
Symbol variety – RRC -. Babelon -. BMCRR -

A previously unknown symbol pair and still the only known example. Confirmed with Richard Schaefer and added to the Roman Republican die database.



Symbol pair Shoe / Sandal
Symbol variety – RRC -. Babelon -. BMCRR -
3.78g. 19.71 mm. 180 degrees.
An unpublished symbol pair with five examples currently known. "This is likely the best of the five examples." (Richard Schaefer - British Museum)



Symbol pair Hunter's net / Two spears
Symbol variety – RRC 19. Babelon 100. BMCRR 19



Symbol pair Owl / Crow with open wings or eagle
Symbol variety – RRC 76. Babelon 76. BMCRR 12.

 

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Symbol pair Shepherd's crook / Mask of Pan
Symbol variety – RRC 69. Babelon 2. BMCRR 69. CNR: unknown


Symbol pair Goblet / Winsekin? shoe?
Symbol variety – RRC 52. Babelon 96. BMCRR 52. CNR: 1/042.

Symbols listed as goblet/wine-skin by Sydenham. coppa/calzatura (cup/shoe) by CNR
Rough surfaces.



Symbol pair Crossbow bolt / Front view of crossbow
Symbol variety – RRC 92. Babelon 75. BMCRR 92. CNR: unknown
Symbols listed as goblet/wine-skin by Sydenham. coppa/calzatura (cup/shoe) by CNR
Some obverse corrosion.



Symbol pair Altar / Lighted altar
Symbol variety –
RRC 147. Babelon 69. BMCRR Unknown. CNR: Unknown

 

Some of those are really beautiful!

 

Apparently there are a lot of varieties for these coins.

 

Roman Republican Coinage, by Michael Crawford, 1974, lists 211 symbol pair varieties. One pair has the symbol CCXLVI on each side perhaps implying that there are a total of 246 symbols pairs. The Paul Bonnano website above lists the current known total. There are still more to find out there.

Martin

 

That's insane and must have been expensive back then to make individual dies for all those coins. Certainly great for collectors.

 

These symbol pairs come from separate die pairs, specifically engraved to go together. If you find other examples of the majority of symbol pairs you will see that they come from the same dies. There are a couple of exceptions to this where a single symbol pair seems to come from two pairs of dies.

 

That's in particular interesting how they would do that with the dies and all those varieties of symbols. Unfortunately, I cannot read that page linked earlier. I can view the main page of the site and other articles but not the L. Papius Database.

It says "
Sorry!
You do not have permission to access this location."

 

Hmm, it was working a short while ago. I'm getting the same message now.

 

I just sent an email to the admin.