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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;TIF, post: 2008737, member: 56859&quot;]Yippeee, the Cupid biga arrived today.&nbsp; Biga.&nbsp; Of Cupids.</p><p><br /></p><p>Awesome.</p><p><br /></p><p>At the risk of sounded totally girlie, isn&#039;t it <b>adorable</b>?&nbsp; <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie8" alt=":D" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />&nbsp; Added to the &quot;Unusual Modes of Transportation&quot; set.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here&#039;s a hasty picture.&nbsp; The iridescence is even better than shown here so I will keep trying to capture better images.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]361481[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Roman Republic, L. Julius L. f. Caesar</b></p><p><b>103 BC</b></p><p>AR denarius, 17mm, 3.9 gm</p><p>Obv:&nbsp; Helmeted head of Mars left; CAESAR; ・J above</p><p>Rev:&nbsp; Venus Genetrix in chariot left, drawn by two Cupids; lyre to left; ・J above</p><p>Ref:&nbsp; Crawford 320/1.</p><p><i>Jencek E-auction 26, lot 58, 14 October 2014.&nbsp; Ex CNG XXXI lot 699, September 1994; ex RBW Collection</i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><b>A bit about this moneyer, from <a href="http://cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=31211" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=31211" rel="nofollow">CNG&#039;s archives</a>:</b></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"><b>Why Venus Genetrix?</b>&nbsp; </span></p><p><br /></p><p>The Julian family claimed descent from Venus through the Trojan exile Aeneas.&nbsp; As for the use of Cupid on this coin, Cupid/Eros is by some accounts the infant of Venus.&nbsp;&nbsp; I guess Venus was making the most of her children&#039;s gifts although one could argue that it&#039;s child abuse <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie8" alt=":D" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Regarding the <span style="color: #0000ff">・J </span><span style="color: #000000">control marks, from a similar coin&#039;s description in a <a href="http://www.goldbergcoins.com/content/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.goldbergcoins.com/content/" rel="nofollow">Goldberg</a> auction: </span></b></p><p><br /></p><p>The controls found on the denarii of L. Julius L.f. Caesar are the letters of the Latin alphabet (only through S) either alone or found accompanied by one or two pellets. The same control mark that is found on the obverse invariably appears on the reverse also, and no pair of controls has more than one pair of dies.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>About the RBW Collection:</b></p><p><br /></p><p>RBW curated an outstanding collection of Roman Republican coins, jumping from US coins to his first ancient coin in 1960.&nbsp; Like many of us, he was amazed that an ordinary person could own such an antiquity-- and for so little money!&nbsp;&nbsp; Next he bought a book-- Sydenham&#039;s work on coins of the Roman Republic-- and&nbsp; then he was hooked.&nbsp; Without coin collecting heirs, he decided to sell his collection late in life.&nbsp; The first part was offered by NAC in 2011.</p><p><br /></p><p>The rest of his brief autobiography and a delightful introduction by Roberto Russo can be read in the <a href="http://www.arsclassicacoins.com/pdf/NAC61-1.pdf" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.arsclassicacoins.com/pdf/NAC61-1.pdf" rel="nofollow">NAC auction brochure</a>.&nbsp; It&#039;s definitely worth a read.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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