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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;DonnaML, post: 8070103, member: 110350&quot;]Here&#039;s one of my favorites (it was in my Top 10 last year):</p><p><br /></p><p>Roman Republic, Ti. Claudius Ti.f. Ap.n. Nero [Tiberius Claudius Nero, son of Tiberius and grandson of Appius], AR Serrate Denarius, 78 BCE, Rome Mint. Obv. Draped bust of Diana right with hair in topknot, bow and quiver over shoulder, figure of stag’s head at end of bow (horns to left), S • C [<i>Senatus Consulto</i>] before / Rev. Winged Victory driving galloping biga right, with horses’ heads straining forward, holding wreath in right hand and palm frond and reins in left hand, control number CXXXIIII beneath horses; in exergue, TI•CLAVD•TI•F [VD ligate] / [A]P•N [AP ligate] in two lines. Crawford 383/1, RSC Claudia 5, Sear RCV I 310 (ill.), Sydenham 770, BMCRR 3096-3113 [Control number CXXXIIII not included], Harlan, RRM I Ch. 8, pp. 36-39 [Harlan, Michael, <i>Roman Republican Moneyers and their Coins</i>, 81 BCE-64 BCE (2012)]. 18 mm., 4.01 g., 6 h.*</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1399706[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>*The moneyer belonged to the patrician Nerones branch of the Claudii, and was the paternal grandfather of the Emperor Tiberius. Harlan, supra at p. 36. See also <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiberius_Claudius_Nero_(grandfather_of_Tiberius_Caesar)" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiberius_Claudius_Nero_(grandfather_of_Tiberius_Caesar)" rel="nofollow">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiberius_Claudius_Nero_(grandfather_of_Tiberius_Caesar)</a>.&nbsp; Later on, according to Harlan, he served under Pompey in the pirate wars of 67 BCE, with his area of command the Spanish waters as far as the Pillar of Hercules. This coin was part of a large issue in two series, with control numbers in the first series running from I to CLXV, and in the second series using the letter A coupled with numbers 1 to CLXXXII. It is believed that this issue (like the large issue of Naevius Balbus in the previous year (Crawford 382/1, also showing Victory at the reins of a chariot, albeit a triga) represents money minted for the use of Quintus Caecilius Metullus Pius (the issuer of Crawford 374/1 in 81 BCE, with an elephant reverse) in Sulla’s Spanish war against Sertorius in 79 BCE. Id. Sear agrees; see Sear RCV I at p. 130.</p><p><br /></p><p>In 1904, Grueber posited in BMCRR that Diana’s appearance on the obverse of this coin was a reference to the Sabine origin of the <i>gens</i> Claudia, given Diana’s own Sabine origin. Crawford rejected this view, but Harlan agrees with Grueber; see RRM 1 at p. 37. He also notes that the inspiration for Diana’s portrayal on this coin must have been her depiction on the obverse of the coin of Aulus Postumius in 81 BCE (Crawford 372/1, with a reverse showing a heifer about to be sacrificed by a priest to Diana on the Aventine Hill): “the goddess is depicted in the very same style on both coins: her hair is tied in a knot on top of her head and the unmistakable attributes of bow and quiver are over her shoulder making the identity of the goddess certain. Claudius’ coin continues the theme of <i>caput orbis terrarum </i>[Rome as head of the world] so clearly expressed by Postumius. Diana, whose appearance on Roman coinage during the 70s was far more common than any other decade of Republican coinage, was emblematic of the extension of Roman <i>imperium</i>.” Id.</p><p><br /></p><p>Next: another coin from a Roman Republican moneyer part of whose name matches that of one or more Roman emperors. (I know there are at least a couple of other such moneyers.)[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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