Only one or two of you know this, but I decided to return to the seller my M. Tullius denarius. I had no use for slabbed coins in ancients, not since I learned to embrace the slab free lifestyle. But that left me with an interesting conundrum, what to replace it with? After all, I do want a denarii with Roma's portrait on it. So I went shopping for a replacement. I did find some great coins, including one that probably would have made all of you drool, but at the end of the day I ended up passing on all of them because sellers were just asking too much for what the coins were...until I came across this one. A very nice portrait of Roma, and the Dioscuri Castor and Pollux featured on the reverse. Most interestingly of all, you get two types of animals for the price of one...horses and a donkey. I think it was a combination of being able to get it for a lower price than advertised, the nice portrait of Roma, and the donkey's head that sold this coin to me. If I'm honest, the comical donkey head probably did 50% of the work. Anyway, hopefully I'll have it in the next week, but here is seller's picture. AR Denarius 4.11g. 19mm. Rome Mint Helmeted head of Roma, r.; X below chin; ass's head behind. The Dioscuri riding r., M.IVNI below horses; In ex.: ROMA Crawford 220/1; RSC Junia 8 Lustrous with light toning. A few dark spots. Includes old NFA ticket on which is written, 'Joel Malter 1-23-75'
it's a great coin, with a very cool ass head....ummm well, the ass is behind.... um.... it's a great coin. seriously.
I do wonder if there was an ancient subliminal message there by placing the ass/donkey behind Rome's shoulder, and if there was one, what exactly that message would have meant to an ancient Roman. Either way, the Junia were an ancient noble family in Rome. The same family responsible for driving the kings out of Rome and also to which Brutus (Caesar's killer belonged)...so that's quite a distinguished name on the reverse of the coin.
I agree with everybody's ass comments (the whole coin is amazing, but I'm a sucker for a cool sub-symbol and that one is awesome!!) Hey, I've seen that coin previously ... vcoins, correct? (yah, I'm pretty sure that I posted it here and suggested that another member should scoop it up rather than the coin they were asking about? ... but I'd have to go back through so many threads to determine if it's the exact coin, or if it's merely the same type) ... blah-blah ... bottom-line is => I loved that coin back then and I love it now!! (congrats) ... I'm a bit jealous that I didn't snag it back then (but we have an unwritten-code that we don't snag coins that other members are considering) ... it's a total winner *edit* your coin is still listed in vcoins (that's odd)*edit*
If you make an offer to a vcoins dealer and they accept, the listing isn't automatically removed by the software. The seller has to manually pull it, and he hasn't done so yet.
Like everyone else, I absolutely love that coin and the donkey/ass device.... I'm not sure I ever noticed that 'inclusion' before and I'd like to hear why it appeared on the coin.. Either way, I think it's a fantastic purchase. Congrats!!!!!
I'm going to give my educated guess as to why that donkey/ass appears behind Rome. When this coin was minted, the third Punic War had ended only a few months before. As you know, the horse was an important symbol for Carthage. It even appears in just about all of their coins. I think the person who designed this coin was alluding to the recent victory of Rome over Carthage, and making fun of their recently defeated enemy. What better way to humiliate the enemy and celebrate victory than to paint the mighty Carthaginian horse as a silly looking wild ass facing backwards and away from the mighty Rome.
Sallent - please don't overlook the importance of a nice pedigree too, which on your coin is 40 years! Includes old NFA ticket on which is written, 'Joel Malter 1-23-75' As for the ass symbol, it probably meant something to the moneyer at the time but has been lost to history as the pun isn't obvious to us. I looked up the coin in Crawford and there is no explanation to the ass, though it may be in some other reference work.
