A REPUBLICAN Drachm

This is one of my recent CNG captures. This is a pretty cool capture for me as I find these Pre-Denarius coins pretty hard to find. Not sure if they are scarce, rare, or if they are just tied up in old collections and are not on-market.

CNG did a great job photographing the coin, capturing all the intimate details, (My OP pic is theirs.) However, when I received it, the coin looks MUCH better in hand! All the ruddy smudges do not really show up to this blurry-eyed guy.

I am really pleased, and now have several Didrachmae, Litrae, and now TWO versions of Pre-Denarius Drachmae! Turning into a nice subset collection of Roman Republican coinage! BIG FUN!

This is NOT an AE Litra, rather it is the SILVER DRACHM.


Roman Republic
Anonymous. Circa 240 BC.
AR Drachm (16mm, 3.02 g, 6h).
Rome mint.
Helmeted head of Mars right
Horse’s head right; sickle to left.
Ref: Sear 27; Crawford 25/2; Sydenham 25; RSC 34a.
CNG Comments: Fine, toned, some cleaning/smoothing marks. Rare.

Please feel free to post your PRE-DENARIUS coins, Any cool HORSE-HEAD COINS, HEY! Any SICKLE coins, or any cool MARS coins.

@stevex6 can go ape-s posting whatever he thinks is really cool.

 

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Very nice, Brian.

 

Aweseome addition, that horse looks great!

Mars:

 

@Alegandron

I really like that coin. Thanks for posting it and congrats on great acquisition.

 

Thanks! I was "glabberfasted" that I found it! and in nice shape. I have the Left Facing Quadrigatus Drachm, which seems rare, but finding any OTHER of the AR Drachm series is elusive.


Roman Republic
AR Half-Quadrigatus (216-214 BCE) DRACHM
17.7mm, 3.2g
OBV: Beardless Janiform (thought to represent the Dioscuri being beardless)
REV: Iupiter and Victory in galloping quadriga LEFT (to distinguish it from Quadrigatus Didrachm), ROMA in ex
REF: Sear 35

The descendant coins of the Half-Quadrigatus Drachm was the Victoriatus, which was a Roman Drachm or approx 3/4 of a Denarius... Generally thought to be used in trade with Magna Graecia (Southern Italy Greek Cities).

 

Neato! Were these coins referred to as drachms in contemporary Roman histories or is it a modern appellation?

 

I understand, and I am not an expert, that the Romans used these more in trade with Magna Graecia and the Celts. The Roman Drachmae from this period were the forerunners of the Victoriatus (still a Roman Drachm). This is the same treatment for the Didrahmae and the token Litrae that the Romans minted during this time: mainly to be used in trade with Magna Graecia and with the Celts...

And, to answer you, yes, I BELIEVE they were referred at that time as Drachmae, Didrachmae, and Litrae when trading with Magna Graecia.

In the meantime, Rome and Central Italia were still producing and trading the Aes Grave bronze coinage.

Would love some experts to further chime in...

 

WOW!! What a fantastic drachm!!! I can't rave enough about the wonderful style....except to say I LOVE it and want one sooo bad!!

Well, I'll throw in a denarius of MARS with the fighting soldiers reverse; Q Thermus, 103 BC:

 

THAT is one of my favorites. I got one from Warren not too long ago!

 

That's a really cool coin. I learned something new today!

 

that's a cool RR AR!

i don't have anything like that...so here is a sickle coin.

 

That is a really cool one!

 

Nice, rare, coin!
I have a cast sicle Semis, shown on a copy of Garrucci -

 

Nice job! That is a nice pig of bronze! How much does that guy weigh? Approx 150g?

 

It only weight 100 grams. That puts it on the low end of this series.

Roman Republican semis, Aes Grave, Rome, 241 to 235 BC.
Obv – Head of Minerva wearing Corinthian helmet L, below S
Rev – Head of woman L, below S, behind sickle
Cr 25.5, 241 BC, 55 specimen in Haeberlin
BMCRR Italy – pg 50, no. 2
TV 37

 

Very nice. I have a little horsehead litra, but that's it for me. It'll probably be a while before I can win a horsehead drachm/didrachm but the "sickle" series horsehead litra is on the short list.

Roman Republic Æ litra(5.75g, 18mm), anonymous, after 264 B.C., Cosa mint. Helmeted head of minerva right; border of dots / Horse's head right, on base; behind, ROMA[NO] upwards. Crawford 17/1d; BMCRR Romano-Campanian 12; Sydenham 3a
Ex Thersites Collection, Roma e-sale 32 lot 662(incorrectly omitted from lot description), ex Andrew McCabe Collection, acquired in 2009.

 

Very nice! I have several of the Litrae, and some are difficult to get a nice portrait. It is also fun to see they used several of the same designs across the AE Litrae, the Didrachmae, and the Drachmae. Sear lists them in 2 different sections with several pages in between. However, they should all be grouped together as they were minted during the same time, same mint, and very similar designs, with mintage poited at the same audience: Magna Graecia and the Celts... It is a cool segue in Republican coinage. I love all these issues.

 

I'm not so sure about that. Find evidence suggest different areas of circulation for some of these litrae and other fractional bronzes of the period and for the Minerva/horsehead litrae(like the one I posted) in particular evidence points toward Central Italian circulation in the area of Latium, Eturia or possibly Umbria, but likely not Magna Graecia. I do think the silver issues were minted for trade with the Greeks and Celts, and they show up plenty in otherwise Greek hoards, but I'm not so sure about the bronzes.

 

Interesting, thanks!

 

Congrats on your new coin, Alegandron. I normally only collect silver but have been getting a taste for aes grave and picked up this cool triens at NYINC. Also, landed this wonderful little litra ex Haeberlin (aka, The Greenie) late last year.