A local coin shop pick up yesterday - Mars, Venus and a Cupid-driven biga

While pawing through Sal's boxes of ancients yesterday, I came across this worn but charming denarius, which, at $79 (after discount - the price was originally $90), seemed a pretty good buy.

This coin depicts Mars, facing left on the obverse and Venus Genetrix in a biga being driven by two cupids. Now this is a mode of transportation that I would seriously consider. It is essentially green, although I don't know if cupids require greenhouse gas generating food. Also, where does one buy the biga and cupids? Amazon? Further, I am not sure if this setup is street legal, especially for Interstate 280, so I guess I'll stick with my 2013 Mazda 3 six speed for now.

I understand that the republican denarii have control marks on the obverse and reverse, upper left. I am not sure what control mark this coin has, and if it has any significance beyond being a control mark.

I notice that this type has been posted before, so I don't want to do a rehash describing this coin.

Roman Republic, 103 BC
L. Julius L.f. Caesar, Rome
AR Denarius
Obverse: Helmeted head of Mars left, CAESAR to right
Reverse: Venus Genetrix, holding sceptre, driving biga of Cupids left; lyre below; [L]·IVLI·L·[F] in exergue.
Crawford 320/1

18mm, 3.84 grams



I picked up a few other coins that I hope to photograph soon.

Thanks

 

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All you were missing was a mask and gun. You stole that! Great pick up!
Here's mine along with the write up.



Head of young Mars left wearing a crested helmet

Rev.
L IVLI L F
Venus Genetrix in Biga left drawn by two cupids, before them a lyre

Rome 103 BC

Sear 198

ex-Harlan J. Berk

Lucius Julius Caesar was Mark Antony's grandfather and Gaius Julius Caesar's cousin. He was moneyer in 103 BC and tried in vain to obtain the quaestorship. However he was praetor in 94 and then became the proconsul of Macedonia. Finally he gained the Consulship in 90 BC the same year his younger brother Gaius was aedile.

In 90 BC Lucius Julius Caesar as consul defeated the Samnites and proposed the Lex Julia which offered citizenship to all communities in Italy that were not in revolt. In the following year 89, the Lex Plautia Papiria extended citizenship to those who gave up the fight by a certain date. Lucius Julius Caesar was now made censor along with Publius Licinius Crassus (father of the triumvir). But it was a time of unrest.

In 87 Marius returned to Rome with Cinna and captured the city. Lucius and Gaius were killed during the fighting and according to Livy their heads were exposed on the speakers platform.

 

Thank you!

That's a very nice example, much bolder and with all of the reverse legend!

Sal has some old stock, and not all of the prices have been updated recently. Still, I am sure he came out of the deal okay.

 

Handsome coin & great price. I would have bought it for that too.

 

Thank you. I guess I need to frequent the shop more often. I kind of been diverted to buying coins online, to the detriment of my local brick and mortar coin shop.

 

Support local business.

 

Beautiful!
I would've bought that as well.
I wish my LCS had ancients.

 

Nice OG Julius Caesar
Here's mine:

 

Wow! Great find for the price!

 

That's a lovely coin, Bing, very attractive.

 

A really nice example, @robinjojo, with an extremely clear design. The control marks on yours -- the same on both sides, as is always the case with this type -- appear to be a retrograde "L" with one dot to the left of it. See the discussion of control marks in the footnote to my description of my example.

Roman Republic, L. [Lucius] Julius L.f. Caesar, 103 BCE, Rome Mint. Obv. Head of Mars left wearing helmet with long crest, feather on side, and peaked visor; behind, CAESAR upwards; above, control-mark (retrograde open “P” with two dots, one above and one below) / Rev. Venus Genetrix driving biga of cupids left, holding scepter in right hand and reins with both hands; above reins, control-mark (same as on obverse); beneath cupids to left, lyre; in exergue, L•IVLI•L•F. Crawford 320/1, RSC I Julia 4 (ill.), Sydenham 593, Sear RCV I 198 (ill.), BMCRR 1405-1434 [this control-mark not included; cf. 1430-1431, each with retrograde open “P” with only one dot as control-mark, one with dot above and the other with dot below.] 16 mm., 3.83 g., 9 h.*



*The moneyer, Lucius Julius Caesar, son of Lucius, was Consul in 90 BCE. (Crawford Vol. I p. 325.) Through his daughter Julia, he was Mark Antony’s maternal grandfather. (See Wikipedia; cf. Grueber, BMCRR p. 210 n. 1.) In addition, the moneyer was either the second cousin or the second cousin once removed of Julius Caesar: his grandfather, Sextus Julius Caesar, was either a brother or uncle of Julius Caesar’s grandfather, Gaius Julius Caesar. This was the first Roman coin on which the name CAESAR appeared. (However, in 129 BCE, another relative, named Sextus Julius Caesar, issued a coin [Crawford 258] on which the name CAISAR appeared, i.e., the same name with a different spelling.)

The reverse type, depicting Venus, “alludes to the descent of the Iuli from Venus by way of Aeneas and Ascanius-Iulus" (Crawford p. 325): Iulus, the legendary ancestor of the Iuli, was the son of Aeneas, who, in turn, was the son of Venus. The figure of Venus on the reverse is identified in RSC and BMCRR (but not in Crawford or Sear) as Venus Genetrix, i.e., Venus in her capacity as goddess of motherhood and as a generative force, specifically as ancestress of the gens Iulia and generally with respect to the Roman people. (Query, however, whether that term was commonly used at the time this coin was issued, as opposed to more than 50 years later after Julius Caesar’s dedication of the temple of Venus Genetrix in 46 BCE and the sculpting of a cult statue to her. The concept was also poeticized by Lucretius, long after the issuance of this coin. See http://archive1.village.virginia.edu/spw4s/RomanForum/GoogleEarth/AK_GE/AK_HTML/TS-060.html.)

According to Crawford, the lyre “is presumably explained by the links of the Iuli with Apollo.” (Id.) Similarly, according to Grueber, “the head of Mars on the obverse may point to past military successes gained by members of the family as well as to the mythical connection between that divinity and Venus.” (BMCRR p. 210 n. 1.)

Crawford also explains at p. 325 that the control-marks are the letters of the Latin alphabet as far as S, either normally disposed or retrograde, alone or accompanied by one or two dots above, below, to the sides, and/or within the letters. The control marks are “invariably” the same on the obverse and reverse, and “[n]o pair of control-marks has more than one pair of dies.” In total, there are 92 obverse and 93 reverse dies. The two examples in the Schaefer Roman Republican die project of Crawford 320 with a retrograde open “P” with two dots, one above and one below -- and it took me a while to realize that the control-marks on mine were supposed to be reversed P's -- do appear to be die matches with this coin. (See p. 11 of the Crawford 320 die clippings in the RRDP.)

 

Denarius of L Iulius Caesar 103 BC Obv. Helmeted head of Roma left. Rv Venus standing left driving biga of cupids. Crawford 320/1 RBW 1175 3.90 grms 16 mm Photo by W Hansen According to my sources the backwards "L" which can be seen very clearly on both obverse and reverse on the @robinjojo coin and less so on my obverse is a control mark. It would appear that the dot associated with the "L" is the determining factor at least in this group. As for pulling the chariot.... those are really big cupids. I guess there is a whole lot of love getting that chariot to move.

 

..wow...that was a super deal...

 

Great price for such a cool coin design, @robinjojo.

Instead of a reverse "L", my example has a reverse "B".

L. Julius L. f. Caesar AR Denarius. Rome, 103 BC.
Obv: Helmeted head of Mars to right; CAESAR upwards behind, •ᗺ above
Rev: Venus Genetrix in biga of Cupids to left, holding sceptre in right hand and reins in left; lyre in lower left field, •ᗺ above, L•IVLI•L•F in
exergue.
Crawford 320/1; BMCRR Rome 1405; RSC Julia 4.
3.93g, 15mm, 7h.

 

Thank you all for your comments and excellent coins!

I am happy to own this coin and such a good price, but I think the law of averages is a work here, at least in my case, so this purchase serves to offset all those other purchases, particularly through auctions, where my coin price curve goes stratospheric for me, especially since the time I retired and am on a fixed income, a nice one, though, with a county pension.

So, in two weeks I'll head to Willow Glen to see what else awaits, in ancients. Sal did mention that he had a box of ancients (mostly bronzes, I understand) that need attribution, so I'll try to help him there, although my expertise is by no means extensive, so I might be posting some for your assistance.

Thanks again!