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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Calpurnia, post: 1341900, member: 35419&quot;]Hi:</p><p>I just joined this forum yesterday and hesitate to reply to your thread for &quot;denarii experts&quot;, but I do collect books and auction catalogs on Roman Republican coins and a few coins as my budget is limited for coins. </p><p><br /></p><p>First I think we should determine that your coin is of L. Calpurnius Piso Frugi, dated 90 B.C.&nbsp; and not that of his son, C. Calpurnius Piso Frugi. dated 67 B.C.&nbsp; If you look on the reverse and the legend starts with an L.(Lucius), then it is of course the one dated 90 B.C., but if it starts with a C(Gaius), then it is the son dated 67 B.C.</p><p><br /></p><p>If it is indeed the son C(Gaius), as I believe it will be, then you will probably also find on the reverse of your coin what looks like a G above the rider. The G is the control mark for the reverse and the Y(with sort of an upper vertical bar) on the obverse would be the control mark for the obverse.&nbsp;&nbsp; Control marks were a sort of inefficient way to keep track of the different dies used.&nbsp;&nbsp; Of course if your coin is indeed that of Lucius. then it would have a different control symbol.</p><p><br /></p><p>The issues of both Lucius and Caius are extensive and both used control symbols generally on both sides of their coins. </p><p><br /></p><p>The coins of Caius(67 B.C.) have been researched thoroughly by Charles Hersh in the Numismatic Chronicle for 1976 and he catalogued almost 500 different combinations of these control marks. Yours may be Herch 111 if it has the G on the reverse.&nbsp; </p><p>If your coin is actually that of Lucius, then I don&#039;t know of a catalog of them. I hope I haven&#039;t confused you as is this my first time on this forum.</p><p><br /></p><p>There are 2 main books on Roman Republican coins.&nbsp; One is Crawford&#039;s Roman Republican Coinage(RRC), which is great for the dating and has other good information. The other is the British Museum Roman Republican Coins(BMRRC), which has outdated dating but much historical information not in Crawford.&nbsp; However, both are expensive and hard to get.</p><p><br /></p><p>I think your best bet is to go to the link to the British Museum given in an earlier thread.&nbsp; It has a good introduction to Roman Republican coins and the moneyers.&nbsp; Also it has thousands of pictures of Roman Republican Coins, but you need the Crawford # from the catalog mentioned above.&nbsp; Here&#039;s what you can do.&nbsp; If you want to see the coins of Lucius, type in 340* and it will bring up over 500 pictures of his coins.&nbsp; If you want to see coins of Gaius, then type in 408* and over 300 pictures will be yours.&nbsp; When you click on the small picture of each coin, a large high quality picture will show up. Along with the pictures is a description of the control marks on both the Obv and Rev, although they call them &quot;inscriptions&quot;.&nbsp; Also further down will often be acquisition information, including biography of the collector if a bequeth or dealer information if acquired from a dealer.&nbsp; I believe some of the coins were given by one of the British Kings.</p><p><br /></p><p>The link to Andrew McCabe will take you to a wealth of information of Roman Republican Coins and books and I highly recommend it. </p><p><br /></p><p>Lucius and Caius both belong to the Calpurnia family and there is a very interesting article on the internet about them and their coins.&nbsp; If you type in C. Calpurnius Piso L. F. Frugi in google, then the 7th entry is a PDF file about them.</p><p><br /></p><p>I have a special interest in Caius since I have the Numismatic Chronicle listing of his coins, although since I have only 3 of his almost 500 varieties I can&#039;t really say I am trying to compete the series!&nbsp; Also the Apollo obverses have some of the most beautiful portraits, which are also in high relief. And the control marks on them are quite interesting. My user name is their family name Calpurnia.</p><p>Also, when I see a picture of one of Caius&#039; coins in a dealer&#039;s listing or ebay, I try to determine what Hersh # it is(Your avatar is what drew me to your thread). Also it is interesting that dealers will sometimes confuse the coins of Caius with those of Lucius. </p><p><br /></p><p>By the way, the word denarius stands for 10 asses, and the early denarii had the roman numeral X(for 10) on them.&nbsp; If we think in terms of american coins, the Roman As is about the size of the copper Large Cent of the 1800&#039;s and Roman Denarius would be similar to&nbsp; our silver 10 cent piece or Dime.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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