A denarius of Caius Calpurnius L.f. Piso Frugi

Last night, another coin I've been anxiously waiting on arrived. This denarius was struck under the moneyer Caius Calpurnius Lucii filius Piso Frugi circa 61 B.C.. Rather than provide some big writeup on the type, I've copied below some context from the intro of Charles Hersh's die study on this type, published in Numismatic Chronicle 1976, which is the most complete study ever completed for this issue:

Caius was the scion of an old plebeian family. His father was Lucius Calpurnius Piso L.F. Frugi, who was moneyer during the Social War in 90 B.C. and was elected praetor in 74 B.C. Caius was himself born in 87 B.C. and in 67-66 B.C. he was betrothed to Tullia, the only daughter of Marcus Tullius Cicero, the orator and statesman. The couple were married in 63 B.C., when Cicero was consul. Caius was elected quaestor in 58 B.C., during the consulship of his kinsman, Lucius Calpurnius Piso L. F. Caesoninus. While in office he devoted his efforts to trying to obtain the recall of Cicero from banishment in Macedonia, whither he had gone following the legislation sponsored by his enemy, Publius Clodius Pulcher. At the end of his quaestorship Caius was allotted the provinces of Pontus and Bithynia, but he remained in Rome to continue his efforts on Cicero’s behalf. He died during the early summer of 56 B.C., before the return of Cicero to Italy on 5 August 57 B.C., following his recall.

Caius probably was a moneyer during 63 B.C., when Cicero was consul. The only denomination of coins he struck was the denarius and he used the same obverse and reverse types as on the denarii of his father. The obverse had as its type the head of Apollo, while the reverse depicted a naked horseman. The latter is a direct reference to the Ludi Apollinares, the annual celebration of which was proposed by an ancestor of the moneyer, C. Calpurnius Piso, who was praetor in 211 B.C., the year following the establishment of the games.
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This coin comes from what Hersh refers to as a "section 1" obverse die, with a laureate head of Apollo facing right, and as Hersh points out, a more refined, Hellenistic-influenced style than the obverses of other sections. The obverse symbol is variously described as a stork or heron - I don't know enough about birds to have a strong opinion, but I'd certainly like to hear if you do. The reverse symbol is a lituus, a curved staff used for ceremonial purposes to mark out ritual spaces in the sky.


Roman Republic AR Denarius(3.75g), Caius Calpurnius Piso L.f. Frugi, 61 BC, Rome Mint. Laureate head of Apollo right; Heron or stork behind / Horseman, holding whip and reins, on horse galloping right; lituus above, C·PISO·L·F·FRVG below. Crawford 408/1a(67 B.C.), dies O5/R5; C. Hersh, NC 1976, 29(O-10/R-1005), section 1, linkage A

As always, feel free to share anything relevant

 

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Very interesting post, @red_spork

I have one of these, but I have it attributed to 67 B.C. - from Crawford? The 63 B.C. sounds plausible too - I really don't have any additional information.


Roman Republic Denarius
C. Piso L.f. Frugi
(67 B.C.) Rome Mint
Laureate head of Apollo right, h-S behind / C·PISO·L·F· FRV[G?] below, horseman right holding palm-branch; X above.
Crawford 408/1a; Calpurnia 24; Hersh corpus 54; BM 3786; DA 6398; CF 761.
(3.53 grams / 17 mm)
M&R Coins Sep. 1989

Note: March 2021, @DonnaML on Coin Talk corrected my attribution on this:
"@Marsyas Mike, your C. Piso L.f. Frugi is actually Cr. 408/1a: that's a laureate Apollo, not one with a fillet. With the two control marks, it's a Hersh corpus 54: Thus, the reverse control-symbol is a barred-X, and the obverse symbol (partially off the flan) looks kind of like h-S. The British Museum has an example. and the Bibliotheque Nationale has two. The reverse legend must be blurred at the end on those copies as well as yours; hence, the ?"

Thanks again, @DonnaML

 

That’s a pretty coin! Congrats. Here’s my similar example, I hope I have it attributed correctly.

L. CALPURNIUS PISO FRUGI. Denarius (61 BC). Rome.
Obv: Head of Apollo right, hair bound with taenia; club behind.
Rev: C PISO L F FRVG.
Rider, holding palm frond and reins, on horse galloping right; control (T) above.
Crawford 408/1b.

 

A wonderful coin, @red_spork!

Here is an example of the 90 BC issue that inspired the 61 BC coins:


Roman Republic, moneyer: L. Calpurnius Piso Frugi, AR denarius, 90 BC, Rome mint. Obv: laureate head of Apollo r.: control marks. Rev: L PISO FRVGI; horseman galloping r. with palm-branch; control mark CVI. 18mm, 3.77g. Ref: RRC 340/1.

 

That's a lovely coin, @red_spork! I like the heron/stork control mark.

Interesting biographical information about the moneyer, too.

Here's a Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi, of which everyone seems to have an example.


L. Calpurnius Piso Frugi, 90 BC.
Roman AR denarius, 3.68 g, 18.1 mm, 8 h.
Rome, 90 BC.
Obv: Laureate head of Apollo right; ΨXXXVIII behind.
Rev: Horseman right with palm-branch in left hand and reins in right hand; CVII above, L·PISO FRVGI / ROMA monogram below.
Refs: Ghey, Leins & Crawford 340.1.84; RSC Calpurnia 11; Sydenham (CRR) 664b; BMCRR 1928; Sear 235.
Notes: Double die match to BMC specimen.

 

Wonderful example. I "need" one to pair with my 90 BC example (which bears what I think to be an ibis)


L. Calpurnius Piso Frugi, Denarius - Rome mint, 90 BC
Laureate head of Apollo right, Δ below chin
Naked horseman galloping right, holding whip; above swan (Ibis ?). L.PISO.FRUGI / ROMA at exergue
3,93 gr - 18,8 mm
Ref : RCV # 235, RSC # 12b, RRC # 340/1-Calpurnia 12b-symbol 166
Ex. Naville Numismatics

Q

 

My favorites of the many, many variations on these coins are the ones with dies numbered in Roman numerals from the Lucius, 90BC, group. Since obverse dies on the anvil lasted longer that the reverse punch dies, the numbers advanced at different rates. Also there is the fact that some Roman numerals are just more interesting than others. This one is my favorite but the coin certainly could be higher grade and better in centering.

The obverse 77 (LXXVII) uses the old style fifty which looks like a down arrow. The reverse 94 (XCIV) combines two subtractive numbers which your Latin teacher may have told you the Romans did not use (they forgot to tell the Romans). The other interest I find in these coins is the rocking horse pose of the horse which was shown not ever to occur by the early photographer Eadweard Muybridge who was commissioned to settle a bet between horse lovers who disagreed on whether a horse ever had all four feet off the ground when running. They do but only when the four are toward the center of the horse. They never have all four legs stretch out at the same time as shown on the coins. All students of photographic history know his work that went on to include hundreds of people and animals in motion. BTW, he showed that cats do adopt the rocking horse pose but horses do not. Painters quickly adopted the correct Muybridge poses aiding in the dating of paintings before and after the publication of his books (beginning in 1877). People who share the hobbies of coins and photography need one of these.

 

L. Piso L.F. L.N. Frugi Ar Denarius Rome 90 BC Obv. Head of Apollo right laureate. Rv Naked horseman on galloping horse right. Crawford 340/1 4.12 grms 18 mm I always found it interesting how the two moneyers came up with a very similar looking coin. Even though this phenomenon is not unique to the Frugi it is still rather unusual.

 

Muybridge is fascinating. I first read about his work when I was a kid. One of the volumes of the Time-Life Library of Science showed Muybridge's photos and summarized his findings. They, of course, didn't mention he was arrested and later acquitted of the killing of his wife's lover on the grounds of justifiable homicide. I had to read about that when @dougsmit talked about this here at CT!

There is a moment when a horse is almost in that pose--clearing a fence! Granted, the rear legs are not stretched backwards during a jump. The angle of equestrian to dorsal line is off, but if you rotate the coin a few degrees either direction, it's close. I suspect it is the closest thing to flying that people knew for a very long time, and there's nothing else quite like that feeling, either.

 

67 B.C. was from Crawford and I think Hersh may have got 63 B.C. from Sydenham but I'm not completely sure. At any rate, much of the dating from this period was revised when the Mesagne Hoard was published by Charles Hersh and Alan Walker in 1984. The Mesagne hoard was a hoard of 5,940 denarii found in the town of Mesagne in Calabria which ends with the securely dated issue of M Scaurus and P Plautius as Curule Aediles in 58 B.C.. Before Mesagne, the hoard evidence for the period roughly between the death of Sulla and Caesar crossing the Rubicon was quite scarce and the hoards that had been used to build the chronology of the period were small and as such, not as reliable since a smaller hoard is less likely to represent all issues in circulation. The issues of this period are also so stylistically diverse that it's hard to link issues based on style as is possible in some eras.

Mesagne caused a number of issues previously thought to be pre-58 B.C. but missing from the hoard, such as that of Quintius Pomponius Musa, to get pushed to the post-58 period. Likewise the nearly uncirculated condition of larger numbers of some coins previously thought to have been in circulation for a decade at this point, such as the issue of C Calpurnius Piso Frugi here, required some issues to be moved forward a few years

 

Thank you for that information. Very useful!

 

Many interesting variations and symbols.
This reverse looks as if he is wearing a cap



one with head left

 

It is more likely to see a crane or stork with the neck outstretched when standing. Herons fly with the neck recurved and seem to keep it like that almost all the time. So my vote is for crane/stork

 

The shooting and trial ocurred a couple years before the horse bet so, had he been convicted, there would be no photos.

Yes, BUT, the bet was on a horse running, not jumping. Cats 'pounce' which is a bit of a series of smaller jumps. Horses locomote in a number of gates but the matter here was not how the jump but how they run.

 

...no ancient Roman collection should be without a Frugi L Piso Frugi, c 90BC, 18mm, 3.32gms

 

I've got one of these as well, perhaps from right around the time they started using numbers as controls since both numbers are low and the reverse actually lower than the obverse number.

AR Denarius(19.62mm, 3.90g), L. Calpurnius Piso Frugi, 90 BC, Rome Mint. Laureate head of Apollo right; Control-mark "VIII" behind / L PISO FRVGI, Horseman, holding palm frond and reins, on horse galloping right; Control-mark "VI" above, ROMA monogram below. Crawford 340/1, Sydenham 661, Calpurnia 12

Purchased from Ancient Imports November 2015, ex "SC Collection", reportedly ex Joel Malter, March 29 1970

 

Nice coins!

Here's mine from the 90BC issue, die-break included.


I just spent a half-hour browsing acsearch and CNG, looking for a die-match to my example, part curiosity, and partly to check if the seller's attribution is correct (I have no reference work on the RR). Unfortunately, no match.
What I did notice: I don't think I've ever come across a denarius with so many obverse dies. An almost endless parade of numbers and controls, many adorned with yet other symbols, making the possible permutations almost infinite!
I knew it was a common coin, but I wasn't prepared for this...

Does anyone perhaps know the approximate number of obverse dies that were used in both issues? And, could it be that this is the RR issue with the most dies used and coins struck? I'm curious. Thanks!

 

Crawford estimates 864 obverse and 1080 reverse dies for the earlier issue, 340/1. He also says "For full details see R. Grassby and M H Crawford, The denarius coinage of L. Piso Frugi (forthcoming)". Unfortunately that never came out so I'm not sure if anyone has a better number for this issue than Crawford's estimate.

For the later issue, 408/1, Hersh found 204 obverse and 232 reverse dies with good coverage so that is likely very close to the true number.

 

Thanks for the info, @red_spork.
Those are impressive numbers. At 10.000 coins per obverse die (?), that makes well over 10 million denarii between the two issues.
So much for me owning a rare coin!