The quinarius denomination

The Roman quinarius was valued at half a denarius. The first issues accompanied the introduction of the denarius c. 212 BC and were discontinued c. 190 BC. After a gap of ninety years without production, the denomination was revived in 101 BC.

This is the first of the revived issues.
Moneyer C. Fundanius, 101 BC.
16-15 mm.
See his name up the right of the reverse: C.FVNDA
Laureate head of Jupiter right, behind, control mark
N with a dot below.
Victory right crowning a trophy with a kneeling naked captive,
Gallic carnyx behind
Q (for quinarius) below.
Crawford 326/1. Sear 205. King 31.

I have written a website on the denomination:

http://augustuscoins.com/ed/quinarius/

It is part of a larger educational site:

http://augustuscoins.com/ed/

which has been moved from the ancients.info site I used to use. If you have bookmarked any of my pages, please update your bookmarks to point to the new site. Any improvements will be made to the new site only.

I solicit suggestions for improvement of my "quinarius" page. I'm sure there must be typos or things I could have explained better.

Post your quinarii!

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Very nice and a type I need. Thanks for posting

 

I've only looked it over briefly, but thank you for the work you've done on this to publish it on your website. I really like the catalogue information as well.

 

Thanks @Valentinian ! Saved and printed off. I have captured some from you, but I was unaware that you had this page.

I collect Quinarii... so rather than a repeated posting, here is a database "slug" of Quinarii I have captured so far... Not all purdy, but fun for me to collect:

 

Great post and nice coin! Mines a lil beat up

 

I didn't have this "quinarius" page until I posted it yesterday! It takes some time to put a page like that together.

Your group of quinarii is remarkably large. I'm impressed!

 

Thank you Sir!

I want MORE Mr Esty...

 

Here are a few I haven't posted too often already:

 

Great little coin Valentinian, a lot more interesting than most I have seen and good details. And that is one fantastic collection Alegandron. I only have one of the early quinarius that I bought here in Melbourne.

 

Thank you for the kind comment. I accidentally got a couple Quincunx in the database capture, but it was the only way for me to pull up all the Quinarii. Some of the ones I am looking at are not super condition, and moving into the moon-money range for a slug of metal!

And, your Quinarius is fantastic!

 

Gorgous, Phil. Just gorgeous!

(Your 3rd Quinarius obverse always reminds me of a Singer sewing machine!)

 

Super OP.... and so many wonderful posts!!

I have one of the type..... a bit rough to say the least but I still love it LOL

Thanks for the links @Valentinian !!!

 

Nice work. The quinarius is an interesting denomination and your page is a great primer and certainly something I will be sharing next time a new collector confusedly asks "quinarius?". I do think though that it might be worth mentioning the silver sestertius here as well, as it also had a resurgence during the period of the social war and the Imperatorial period.

In my opinion one of the most interesting things about the early quinarii(and sestertii), as pointed out by Charles Hersh in one of his hoard reports, is that they all have split visors - the only peaked visor quinarius issue I'm aware of is the exceedingly rare issue with prawn which I assume is also the late first period issue you reference. Crawford attempts to place the peaked visor Roma/Dioscuri issues right alongside the split visor issues chronologically but this cannot be the case in light of the fact that almost none of the peaked visor issues are known in the quinarius denomination even though there were evidently many large issues of peaked visor denarii. To me, this lack of peaked visor quinarii highly suggests that the denomination was no longer being minted by the time the peaked denarii were introduced and should probably be moved at least a few years down the timeline, maybe even a decade or more.

 

Awesome looking coin. I don't have a quinarius, guess its another coin to add to my want list.

 

LOL, WOW Sporky! You are REALLY getting deep into the Early RR info! Thanks! I cannot wait to read your coin-books when you put them out! I am starting to collect this area (recreationally). You and @Valentinian are really putting some good info out there for me to be lazy to find some cool stuff!

 

Nice web site @Valentinian ! I enjoy seeing coins posted by others.
I have a few, but I can find the pic of this one, so here goes -


Roman Republican Quinarius, Apulia, circa 211-210 BC.
Anonymous, MT (in monogram)
Obv - Helmeted head of Roma right, V behind
Rev - Dioscuri on horseback riding right; MT ligate below horse on right, ROMA in linear frame below.
Crawford 103/2a
RSC 33h
BMCRR Italy 228
Syd – 117
RBW - 464
1.85g, 17mm, 10h; Very Fine.
I think this is a good example of the lower end of VF. I would have called it aVF, F= or F. It is not common. Crawford estimated 11 obverse dies and 25 reverse dies.

 

nice page @Valentinian and sweet set of coins gandalf...i didn't know you had that many!

i just picked up my first quinarius last week, so it is one of the second republican types...





C. Egnatuleius C.f. 97 BC. AR Quinarius Rome mint.
O:Laureate head of Apollo R: Victory standing left, inscribing shield attached to trophy; at base, carnyx to left; Q in field. Crawford 333/1; King 36 14x16 mm, 2.0g.

kind of weird shaped and looks like double struck on the obverse.

 

T CLOULIS ROMAN REPUBLIC; GENS CLOULIA
AR Quinarius
OBVERSE: Laureate head of Jupiter right
REVERSE: T CLOVLI, Victory crowning trophy on top of Gaulish captive
Struck at Rome 98 BC
2.1g, 13mm
Cr332/1, Syd 586, Cloulia 2

M. PORCIUS CATO; GENS PORCIA
AR Quinarius
OBVERSE: M • CATO • PRO • PR, wreathed head of Liber right
REVERSE: Victory seated right, holding palm branch over her left shoulder and patera in her right hand, VICTRIX in ex
Utica, Africa 47-46 BC
1.4 g, 13 mm
Cr462/2, Porcia 11

AUGUSTUS
AR Quinarius
OBVERSE: IMP VII CAESAR - Bare head right
REVERSE: ASIA RECEPTA - Victory standing left on cippus, holding wreath and palm, snake on either side
Uncertain Italian Mint 29-27 BC
1.7g, 13mm
RIC 276, S 1568

 

Thanks! I dunno about books, but hopefully some of the research I'm working on will at least warrant a paper at some point and as always, I try to add plenty of interesting notes and discussion to the different coins on my website.

 

I like how the Romans revived the design of the Victoriatus for several Quinarius about 100 years later. This trips up auction houses that are in a hurry today, especially for low value coins. The following coin looks a lot like @chrsmat71 and @Alegandron 's coins.


Vittoriato con simbolo Q.AG.mm. 17.00

In defense of the auction house, it was offered at a start price of 1 E and hammered for 17 E. I think someone over paid!