Early Roman heavy bronze coinage:With an As like that getting my hands on it was of grave importance

Over two and a half centuries after the Greeks on Sicily struck some of, if not, THE most beautiful coins humankind would ever know the Romans were still casting large hunks of bronze to trade and barter with.

(Though, rudimentary in appearance, once you've held one you need to own one)


(Here's a link to an article I wrote a while ago about this INSANE recent find of 75 Aes grave
https://www.cointalk.com/threads/hoard-of-75-aes-grave-found-in-rome-yes-please.344263/)

The Romans didn't particularly care how much each denomination of these things weighed just that they got the correct number of coins from a pound of bronze, so coins of the same type, within a very short range of time are all over the place in weight. The one consistency, much like many of my elder CT pals, they kept getting smaller!


My latest large lunk of early Roman metal is from the Quadrantal standard or Post-semilibral standard (215-212 BCE).
Always on the lookout for the type, when I saw this jade green jewel in @John Anthony 's auction I was in love
Weighing 70 grams its provenance dates back to the year my big brother was born! :

ROMAN REPUBLIC.
Anonymous. Circa 215-212 BC.
Æ Aes Grave As, 38mm, 70.7g, 12h; Post-semilibral series, Rome mint.
Obv.: Bearded head of Janus on raised disk.
Rev.: Prow left; I above.
Ref.: Crawford 41/5a; Sydenham 101.
Purchased from @John Anthony Jan 2022, E- Eberhard Link Collection. Ex-Münz Zentrum 88, Cologne 1997, lot 353. Peus Nachfl. 322, Frankfurt am Main 1988, lot 42. Kurpfälzische Münzhandlung 19, Mannheim 1980, lot 99. Ex-Giessener Münzhandlung 15, Munich 1979, lot 105

And just for fun, here it is with one of my smallest coins, a tigers paw EL, in Janus mouth like he's blowing a small bubble:


As a side effect of the long drawn out wars against Carthage the Romans had to cinch up their belts. This wasn't as hard as you may think due to their Ases continually deflating!


Over time though, bronze became less and less important and the rise of the usage of silver in Rome was under way with the advent of the Denarius

My first As is from the Semilibral standard:

ROMAN REPUBLIC. Anonymous. AE Aes Grave Triens (92.37 gms), Rome Mint, ca. 225-217 B.C. VERY FINE.
Cr-35/3a; TV-53. Obverse: Helmeted head of Minerva left; four pellets (mark of value) below; all set upon raised disk; Reverse: Prow right; four pellets (mark of value) below; all set upon raised disk. A pleasing specimen despite its crudeness, with charming green surfaces. A test cut across Minerva's face is noted for completeness.
Ex Stacks & Bowers

This even earlier large chonker that both the auction house and myself had mis-identified that I finally wrapped my head around a couple months ago what it actually was...a MASSIVE astragalus (knucklebone)!!!

Aes premonetale. Aes formatum, AE cast Astragalus (Knucklebone), 6th-4th century BC. Cf. Haeberlin pl. 6,10
64.72 gr. 40.00mm.
Purchased from Artemide Kunstauktionen 2019



As always, thanks for reading. Please feel free to join in the fun, it's always an added bonus if @rrdenarius stops by with some of his or anybody with massive pieces of ancient metal for that matter. Ok, ok. Or RR silver. Please pile on!

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Was hoping for a CoinBoy post. Alas...

 

Hey, I used to have one of those!

 

And she was beautiful then too. Sorry to break it to you buuuut

 

Uniface cast, just under 30 grams, so uncia. One dot in the middle. Not described...

 

As you said Ryro, holding these heavy coins in hand is special:

 

Wow, jealous!! My only aes grave is this uncia, from the earliest series, 19.94g:

The astragalus on mine makes me jealous of your astragalus formatum. (Is the shape more obvious from a side shot? I confess I can't quite see it.) There were a couple in a recent auction but I got outbid. Still, picked up the 200g piece below:

Sold as formatum, but I think I see part of an inscription, so maybe signatum. (The formatum type is Bertol & Farac type IIb, which they say is a precursor to signatum.)

 

It sure is. Though admittedly not perfect, I can only assume making a massive piece of metal into that form with very little knowhow must've been hard. I almost took a Pic to show in OP. Here it is next to a regular sized one:


The one that helped me figure out what it was this smaller version that I saw up for sale:

 

Roman Republic. Cast Æ Semis, circa 240-225 BC (54x49mm, 130.0g, 12h). Obv: Laureate head of Saturn left; S (mark of value) below; all on raised disk / Prow right; S (mark of value) above; all on raised disk. Ref: Crawford 35/2; ICC 76; HN Italy 338; RBW 86. Nice Very Fine. Ex-Colosseum Coin Exchange (May 2009).

 

Yes, that's much clearer from the side, thanks!

That was one of the ones I lost out on.

 

This is not the largest or heaviest Roman Republic cast bronze that I have, but it is an interesting one, with the tortoise on the obverse.

Anonymous Cast Æ Sextans. Rome, circa 230 BC.
Tortoise / Wheel of six spokes.
ICC 71; HN Italy 330; Crawford 24/7; RBW 37; Haeberlin pp. 62-63, 1-130 pl. 25, 15-18.
36.01g, 33mm.

Near Very Fine.

From the Vitangelo Collection.

 

Very nice! I have some of the smaller cast bronzes, up to an 87g triens, but want a big as.

I took this photo' a few weeks ago of a pile of 42 of them in the Capitoline Museums - I don't think I need that many - one or two or three or... would do:


ATB,
Aidan.

 

Here is an ity bity 10 as. I marked it with an arrow to find it easier in my hand.

 

Nice! I love the astragalus as well.

They definitely have a chunky charm of their own. I don't have a Roman Republic Aes Grave yet, but will throw my Hatria teruncia into the pot here.


PICENUM, Hatria
AE Aes Grave Teruncius. 113.9g, 48.1mm. PICENUM, Hatria, circa 275-225 BC. HN Italy 14; Sydenham 188; HGC 1, 8 (R2). O: HAT, fish (or dolphin) swimming right. R: Stingray or skate swimming right; ••• (mark of value) below.
Ex D.L.F. Sealy Collection

 

3 Asses , 2 Semes , 3 Trientes , 1 Sextans, and 1 Uncia (in a pear tree).

 

Great coins everyone. It's true, once you've held one of these massive hunks of bronze you'll be hooked. Here's one I picked up a few years ago.



Head of young Hercules left, wearing lion skin; ••• (mark of value) to right; all on a raised disk

Prow of galley right; ••• (mark of value) below; all on a raised disk.

Rome, Circa 225-217 BC.

Libral standard

40mm; 58.73g

Crawford 35/4; ICC 80; HN Italy 340; RBW 88

aVF for type,

 

Been wanting an Aes Grave for a few years now. Seems as if I will never get one with the luck I have had lately. I was trying to figure out how I could afford that same exact coin @Ryro and was trying to get it but the stars were not lined up at the time for me. I am glad to see you got it my friend.

 

Cast coins can be expensive, but 5 - 10 of these were $100 or less. The inexpensive coins were semuncia, uncia, sextans or a piece of a cast coin. None were less than $25. Bide your time and aim for a hammer of less than 50E so overhead will keep you around $100.

PS - my daughter gave me a holder with trays like this for Christmas 2019. I twisted her arm and she gave me some in 2020.

 

Wow, great coins and post @Ryro ! A write-up of my collection is in the TNA magazine.

TNANewsMarch2021.pdf (ccatech.com)​

A week's pay in cast bronze, or pre 300 BC Roman soldier pay, first pic. About 2 weeks, second & third pics.

 

I have one of the post semi libral asses as well. Ae As Post Semi Libral (Quadrantal) standard 215-212 BC Obv. Head of Bearded Janus. Rv Prow Left. 64.41 grms 35 mm Ex AK Collection Photo by W. Hansen
This coin is in very high relief and probably represents the end of the cast bronze series as even at this juncture some of the smaller denominations were already being struck.