Aes Grave, Sextans, Tortoise / Wheel

In the early third century BC Rome had not yet become the grand empire that it would someday become. At this time Rome was a city state on the rise that had just recently consolidated its rule over the Italian Peninsula. After this consolidation Rome would fight off the Greek King Pyrrhus of Epirus, and later in the century expel Illyrian pirates from Adriatic Sea. In 264 BC Rome would go to war against Carthage in the first Punic war and would meet in war the Carthaginian general Hannibal (Hamilcar Barca) in the second Punic War (218 BC).

Roman “money” was called pecunia, a word derived from cattle (pecus). In the early 3rd century BC, Roman “Coinage” started as shapeless chunks of bronze called aes rude (unfinished bronze) and aes formatium (formed bronze) consisting of axe heads and others end product metal pieces. These aes rude along with aes formatium were the normal medium of exchange, particularly in the North of Italy, and had no standard weight. The first standard weight bronze made for exchange was the aes signatum (marked bronze) which was cast with designs. This type is often found in cleanly broken pieces indicating fractions may have often been needed in the exchange of goods.

Perhaps taking a hint from the Greeks who had been making standard weight coinage for a couple centuries, Rome had began making disc shaped coinage of standard weight. In 289 BC Rome established the college of moneyers (tresviri montales) to establish a mint in the Temple of Juno Moneta on the Capitoline Hill.

The initial issue of bronze coinage was the aes grave (heavy bronze) weighing in at 322 grams and over 66 mm. This “heavy bronze” called an “as” formed the basic unit of exchange and was divided into seven denominations:


As = Basic Unit
Semis = Half Unit
Triens = Third Unit
Quadrans = Quarter Unit
Sextans = Sixth Unit
Unica = Twelfth Unit
Semuncia = Twenty Forth Unit

Roman bronze coinage would suffer weight reductions throughout the 3rd century and by 269 BC the as would be reduced to 270 grams, a weight that it maintain until 218 when second Punic War broke out.

Just got my first an only aes grave from a local coin shop. And yes I am super lucky to have a LCS that regularly carries ancients like this. An aes grave was not even on my hit list but when the shop owner showed me this one I one I could not refuse. It is not a full “as” aes grave. It a smaller 1/6th the size, sextans, but the condition and what I consider to be a very attractive tortoise won me over with ease! It weighs 40.29 grams (still a hefty chuck of bronze) making in very likely cast between 269-218 BC. The flip I purchased it in was gave 230 AD as a date but I have not found a reference to confirm that date. This is a coin that am considering sending to David Sear for authentication. What do you think? Would you send this one in? I am still digging in reference material about this unique Roman coinage and having a blastJ

Feel free to post your cast Roman coinage.


Aes Grave Sextans, AE

Rome, 230BC?, 269-218 BC
O: Tortoise
Rx: Six-Spoke Wheel,
Two Dots (Denotes the denomination, Sextans)
(40.29 Grams. 31 mm)

 

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Wow! I really like this. Congrats.

 

Wonderful write-up and fantastic coin!!

Now that's an example of an AES GRAVE that I would LOVE to own!!

 

Agreed, usually AES Graves do nothing for me but this one is cool. I like it!

 

Great coin. I am a fan of big cast bronze. I like your side on pics.
This was #2 on my top 10 of 2015:


Roman Republic, mint Rome, 230 BC
cast Aes Grave Sextans, anonymous moneyer
This coin was issued on the Libral standard, or near a full Roman Pound for an As, 44 grams, 33 mm; Note: 6 X 44 = 264
Obv - Tortoise on raised disk.
Rev - Wheel of six spokes on raised disk.
Crawford 24/7;
Thurlow & Vecchi 35a; Vecchi 71
HN Italy 330.
BMC Italy 54, 14
Sydenham 63 E.J.

This aes grave sextans was issued midway between the First and Second Punic Wars, when the Romans were strengthening their ‘imperial’ Republic and were pursuing their ambitions in Greece.

I bought this coin from Italy and it took 5 months for paperwork and shipping. I think it was worth the wait!

 

There are variations on the theme. Mine lacks the dots on the reverse but the rear legs of the turtle are considerably exaggerated or connected with two dots which I suspect were intended to serve the purpose.

 

Aes graves do not interest me, but these little guys are fascinating. I would love to have one.

 

Agree

 

Sometimes I wish the 'Like' button had different middle letters!!! Love it!

 

That's pretty cool, TJC ... I'm lovin' the tortoise (and I think your coin has extra special eye-appeal => congrats)

 

That's a really neat coin. Turtles are always a favorite.

 

I LIKE TURTLES!

 

@TJC welcome to Coin Talk Ancients! @rrdenarius gave you some references for your coin. Here's an additional reference: Haeberlin pp. 62-63.
Haeberlin wrote Aes Grave, Das Schwergeld Roms und Mittelitaliens einschließlich der ihm vorausgehenden Rohbronzewährung in 1910. He listed 130 specimens of this coin, which means there were 130 sextans available when he wrote his book; it is not rare. You should be able to find lots of online examples to compare your coin against, if you have questions of authenticity.

The weight range for this coin is 62.50-34.30grams. You asked if it was worth sending to David Sear for authentication. I would not bother (just my opinion), since you have a fine example of this sextans, and at 40.29grams, it falls into the correct weight range.

Crawford (1974) gave the date as 265-242BC, but I believe that most scholars now agree with Vecchi (2013) who gives 230 BC as the date.

I'm not sure your camera captured the correct color of the coin (or maybe it is my PC). Bronze coins oxide and turn green over time, so green is usually the prevailing color (see @dougsmit's photo, he is one of our best photographers)

Again, welcome!

 

Wellcome, thats an impressive thick turtle, I have 2 of these Janus coins, but won a lot of 22 Roman Republic bronzes a couple of days ago at an auction, they are on their way to me, looks promising according to the pics.

 

Congrats on a fine Aes Grave capture! Great coin... nice tortoise!

I have a few Aes Grave, and really love them. I love their thickness in casting. The 2nd pic is of the gate, where the melted bronze enters the coin mold. It also illustrates the thickness of this lower denomination of the Aes Grave series.



Roman Republic
Æ Aes Grave Sextans
Anonymous Issue
Circa 270 BCE
37mm, 55.28 g, 12h. ....12.3mm THICK!
Libral standard. Uncertain mint.
Obv: Head of Dioscurus right; two pellets (mark of value) behind
Rev: Head of Dioscurus left; two pellets (mark of value) behind.
Sear 552; Crawford 18/5; ICC 37; HN Italy 283; Thurlow & Vecchi 12
Comments: dark green patina.
Ex: CNG; Auktionshaus Meister & Sonntag 2 (20 September 2004), lot 1031.

 

Thanks everyone! I am happy to see I am not the only one who can appreciate a fine aes

Doug and rrdenarius thanks for sharing your aeses. Both are very nice! Rr, thanks for the references

Ancientcoinguru, thank you for welcome and the additional info! Your info along with Rr's is just what I was looking for!

In reference to the toning, it is green, black, brown, some dark tan that shows prominently on the tortoise shell, and light colored dirt in the devices. I shoot with a canon 60 mm Macro that works great but has shallow depth of field.(I think I am saying that right). Normally I am not super happy with coins that have a mottled patina but this one shows better in hand than my photos display. The surfaces on the coin look be original and demonstrate, IMHO, better than usual surfaces. It is surfaces that really struck me as being very attractive Here is iPhone pic that might show the color better.

 

View attachment 514843
Now that looks great, exactly the color I would expect! I love aes grave, happy to have another collector on board

 

As someone who has seen this coin in person recently, I agree that it looks much nicer in hand. That is saying a lot considering TJC's photography setup and expertise photographing coins!

 

One thing to note is that this isn't an aes grave - aes grave were cast and this is a struck coin. Your dating is roughly correct however, at first glance the size, weight and style make me think it is the Crawford 56 series and while I don't have my references handy, 200 B.C. is within the ballpark, and I believe ~212-209 B.C. is what Crawford lists it as.

 

Aes grave = heavy as
compared to my imperial as coins, this one is 4 times heavier , so for me its an as grave
but your probably right, perhaps I better call it a Roman Republic or RR as.