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Message:: [QUOTE="kevin McGonigal, post: 3720961, member: 72790"]I would guess that most people who collect coins are also interested in government. There have been endless discussions, (in ancient times the discussions could lead to discombobulation in the Agora or Forum), as to which government produced the finest and best in their citizenry. Well, I don't know if we can settle that but we can ask whether a Democratic or Republican polity produced the best coinage, best, in this case, being the most striking, beautiful or noteworthy, so I propose we post the best example of our coin collections, one from a democratic Greek city-state (yes, I know most were monarchies, oligarchies or tyrannies  but we'll consider democracy to be the ideal of the Greek state) and one from the Roman Republic.  Below I have posted a stater from Velia in Magna Graecia with Athena and a crouching lion as my most fetching democratic coin. It was minted about 300 BC. (Sear 269). Competing with that is my very pleasing Republican denarius of circa 79 BC with the ever beautiful Diana Artemis with Victory galloping down the final lap to..., [ATTACH=full]997441[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]997442[/ATTACH] well, victory. (Sear 310). After endless contemplation. I declare a tie and leave it to others to post their best Democratic Greek and best Republican Roman and see if we can achieve homeostasis as to which kind of state produces the best coinage.[/QUOTE]