This post is about my newest piece. If you do not want the back story, skip to the end. I think of cast bars and parts of cast bars as much older than cast and struck Roman coins. This is probably not the case. Thurlow & Vecchi give the following time line: Aes Rude - down to 4th cent BC - irregular lumps of bronze. Many of the pieces in this category in my collection are broken from a larger bar. Ramo Secco and other bars - late 4th to early 3rd century BC - there are several bars that fall in this category including bars with and without marks Ramo Secco parts of bars two with designs and one without; a part of a bronze knife and a part of a bronze ax Bars with designs or Aes Signatum (now called currency bars by some). I do not have one of these yet. I pretend like the following piece is from a currency bar. That was a long lead for a recent purchase. Aes Formatum. A fragment of ingot, late 4th-early 3rd century BC. AE.g. 63.20Very nice. Earthy green patina.This attractive example has the weight of a cast Quadrans of Roma/Roma series. I liked this one because you can see a line were the larger bar was broken into a desired size. I think it is hard to say what was the intended weight. The oldest Aes Grave series mentioned in T&V, 289 - 245 BC, gives a weight range of 42 to 77 grams for a Sextans (2/12ths of an As). The Roma / Roma series of Aes Grave, 269 to 240 BC, gives a weight range of 55 to 81 grams for a Quadrans (3/12ths of an As). I think it is a nice sized piece of a bar that someone wanted in about this size a long time ago. Given the size, it could have been used for payments in the first Punic war.
For the time, Roman coins were way behind in quality compared to other places. It's amazing how far the Roman's coins skills improved in the next few hundred years. Sometimes I wonder how authenticity can be guaranteed for chunks of metal as I've seen people mis-advertise those or are outright trying to scam people with fake chunks of metal, calling them early Roman Republic cast coinage or something similar. Based on the diagrams you posted, those definitely look real to me.
Great stuff @rrdenarius ! You are really starting to amass a great collection, and all under the wire with all this MOU "schtuff" becoming more complicated. It seems anything pre-denarius is going to be rough until everyone gets the rules and the application of the rules worked out. I am glad I have a few pieces from the pre-denarius era... rude, grave, formatum, litrae, didrachmae... but would love some more.
For now I think that collectors should follow the law as best as possible, with all due respect. Because while the ACCG (Ancient Coin Collector's Guild) is fighting tirelessly to protect our personal collecting rights. While a good portion of us don't have the resources to wage those kind of battles other than contributing to petitions and such, but we should definitely follow the law and as well as some basic ethics. Why you ask, because then those that are contra or the opponents of free collecting will not be able to say that we don't follow the law because we do. Of course you don't have to follow the law, it's a personal choice. I am definitely not the police or the gestapo. lol But if you break the law then it is your responsibility for whatever happens to you and it does suck, I know.
I hope you did not misunderstand my comments on the Rules / Laws. I more than agree that we do not break the law. However, from other discussions, there were several comments about how long it takes for folks to receive their coins, that the governments are releasing only 10 coins per week, etc. That is frustrating, due to slow bureaucracy, lack of personnel, or trying to interpret the rules/laws. That was the essence of what I meant by acquiring them "under the wire", meaning PRIOR to the MOU's being enforced as they are now. My focus is on the Roman Republic, and I have several coins that are Pre-Denarius which are affected by these new rules/laws. I am really glad that I have them now. But acquiring future ones from this area may be more difficult. As to what I HAVE in my collection... well, if they feel they need to be regulated... MOLON LABE!
It's no problem my new friend, it was ambiguous to me what you meant exactly but now I know. I totally understand how it is waiting for coins. Longest I ever waited was 7 months and that was long and frustrating for sure.
The answer to this comment is: "Of course". I have several export papers to go with my collection starting in 2011 when the MOU between the US & Italy first included ancient coins. The form of the papers vary a lot. At times understanding the law is beyond me and I have to take the word of others.
