I've been on quite the silver kick lately but I haven't completely abandoned bronzes, and I recently picked up this helmet series quadrans that even in its rough condition has a nice, clear helmet. The only theory I've seen for the significance of the helmet is in BMCRR Italy where Greuber mentions that it may be of Gallic style and thus may be commemorating some sort of military achievement of the moneyer or an ancestor in Gaul, though there's really no way of knowing. One interesting observation I made while researching other examples of the series, however, is that there seems to be two helmet varieties: mine, with something protruding from both the left and right sides of the helmet that I'll call "thick helmet": and a smaller, thinner helmet with only the sides of the base protruding left or right that I'm calling "thin helmet": All of the asses, semisses and trientes that I found seemed to come with the "thin helmet" variety but the quadrantes and possibly sextantes(but the example is not completely legible) seem to come in both varieties. I'm honestly not sure what to make of it yet - maybe it's simply a difference in styles between two engravers at the mint or maybe there's more here, but I'm certainly going to keep an eye out for any futher examples that might offer hints as to what's going on here. Roman Republic Æ quadrans(22.9mm, 9.66g). Anonymous(Helmet series), 206-195 B.C., Rome mint. Head of hercules right; behind ••• /Prow right; before, helmet; above, ROMA; below, •••. Crawford 118/4; Sydenham 272c Ex RBW Collection, ex Goodman Collection, CNG 45 lot 1286 As always, please share anything relevant!
Nice! I have a half a coin with two caps - Caps of the Dioscuri Æ As. Rome, 169-158 BC. Obv - Laureate head of Janus; above [l]. Rev - Prow right; above caps of the Dioscuri; before l; [ROMA] below. Crawford 181/1. 10.19g, 31mm. gF From the Thersites Collection.
Nice! I'm always envious of your halves. Hopefully I'll find a few of my own one of these days. I've got a Thersites collection coin coming in soon myself as well.
Sorry red, nothing to share. Interesting observation about the helmet styles though. Seems there is always more to learn.
Nice Quadrans , red spork not sure what you mean with helmet types, the 2 pictures you show are very small. Here are mine:
Here are some line drawings that illustrate the difference. The "thick" helmet is from the Goodman collection ticket and the "thin" helmet from one of D'Ailly's line drawings for a coin of this series. Note the line to the left and lines to the right of the "thick" helmet.
That is a very cool little hipster hat with little wings sticking out! She would look great in that hat!
I wrote Richard Schaefer about this coin to inquire whether he had any other examples with this helmet type in his Republican Die Project. He asked for a few days to update his records and scan things in and contacted me mid-day yesterday with the results. His research found that this "thick" helmet type appears only on the quadrans and only on a single die, with all other known dies of the series(including the other dies of this denomination) exhibiting the "thin" helmet. Multiple examples from my reverse die were found, eliminating the possiblity that it is the result of alteration or overstriking, so I'm not quite sure what to make of this finding. The only possibility I can come up with is that the helmet started out as another symbol("MAT" monogram almost fits) or maybe the engraver tried to cut some other type of helmet and then recut the symbol when his mistake was realized. More study is certainly needed.
That's awesome ... red_spork => congrats on scoring that sweet OP-Quadrans ... I happen to have an example as well (wanna see it?) Anonymous AE quadrans 128 BC Hercules & Prow with Elehant Head Hey, who snuck that elephant on board?!!
