The second of my 3 Alba Longa winnings is this beautiful denarius minted c. 113-112 BC. Moneyer is believed to be T. Didius, Cos. 98. The dies on these coins are always beautifully executed and this is no exception. Crawford and Sear suggests the reverse type is a depiction of gladiators in combat. Grueber suggests two soldiers fighting. Dark grey toning and well centered. I have not yet found previous provenances prior to the Alba Longa sale, but the search is ahead.
That is a particularly nice reverse! What is the noise on the obverse left? Is it overstruck or oddly cleaned? Mine was seriously mishandled in cleaning obverse right and is much more worn as I am more likely to buy.
This is a particular coin I would wish to have in my collection. Both the OP and Doug's examples are quite nice. I'm probe to believe this is more likely a gladiatorial reverse as I don't recall soldiers using a weapon like that on the left of the coin.
Very nice Denarius @Fugio1 . Well centered. Mine is whipping so hard, it slipped out of the television screen... AR denarius T. Deidius / Didius, Rome 113-112 B.C. -- gladiatorial scene- Grade: VF Material: SilverWeight: 3.81 g Diameter: 18.00 mm Obverse: Helmeted head of Roma to right, star below, ROMA in monogram behind Reverse: T.DEIDI Two gladiators fighting each other, the one on the left uses a whip, the one on the right, a sword
I wondered about that too. Under high magnification, this does appear to be a die artifact as these lines transcend directly up to and "under" the devices continuing on the other side. One theory is that in preparing the die, the surface was planed with some sort of abrasive. If this is not fully smooth, any grooves from this planing will become "mushy" as the die wears, similar to the mushiness that is seen in the beaded border on my coin. To confirm this theory another coin from the same die needs to be found so I searched for a die link and found this in Roma Numismatics auction #3. I believe this is an obverse die link. There are some small differences that I can't explain but the artifact extending from the hair lock into the neck pretty much cinches it. This example is an earlier die state and much of the "noisy" area is off flan, but as you can see, there is a very similar texture behind the head of Roma, suggesting this was an anomaly of the die.
