Grasshopper on Goddess Diana Roman Republic denarius

I just purchased a coin from the Quidenham hoard through Chris Rudd Celtic Coins. The coin is a Roman Republic denarius of C Allius Bala dated 92 BC RCV 221.

I was wondering if anyone can tell me the significance of the grasshopper on this coin. I tried googling for myths of Diana containing grasshoppers but without success.

Here is the Wildwinds entry for this coin: http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/sear5/s0221.t.html

 

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Show us your coin, please. Make a big photo.

 

Sorry, I actually meant I only just bought it an hour ago and it will be posted sometime today UK time. I won't get it here in Australia for a couple of weeks. I'm not sure if I can post the pictures directly from Chris Rudd's catalogue for copyright reasons. The catalogue is available here though - the coin I bought is listed as number 7 under the Quidenham hoard section.

(PDF) http://www.celticcoins.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/LL-95-webQuid.pdf

 

According to Crawford (Roman Republican Coinage), the moneyer C. Allius Bala is not otherwise known, except for his coins. So I don't know if you will be able to find the significance of why he chose to use a grasshopper as a control mark, but putting a grasshopper on a coin as a control mark was not unusual. Control marks were used by moneyers to distinguish the exact date/sequence of the issue, and allowed the moneyer to keep close accounts of the coins produced and silver used.

 

Many thanks for your help above, I've now received the coin and here are photos:



I love the historical associations of this coin - the Roman mythology and the fact that it came from a hoard likely laid down during Boudica's revolt against the Romans.

 

Congrats on picking up a Quidenham hoard coin! Several of us on CoinTalk snatched up some of those coins. Mine should arrive this week.

As for the grasshopper, I'm unaware of any known significance. The grasshopper (combined with a Latin letter) is just one of seventeen control marks known for Bala. Others include anchor, scorpion, fly, knife, dolphin, corn-ear, plough, crab, quiver, trident, tortoise, ram's head, frog, duck, gryphon, and caduceus.

 

Thanks TIF, yes I saw some of the other Quidenham coins that people had bought, love them all!

 

For some further discussion on the use of control-marks on Roman Republic coinage and overall mint organization I recommend taking the time to read "The use of die marks on Roman Republican coinage" by Richard Witschonke in RBN 2012. PDF is available at this link.

 

Thanks for posting the link to this article!

 

Nice pickup @BowraBoy I like that denarius. My Quidenham hoard coin arrived Tuesday. I will post a new photo in a couple of days.

 

Thanks for posting the link. I read it, and had read many of the cited earlier articles, and it makes sense. I agree that our evidence is insufficient to be sure we know how the mint worked and why they used control marks, but his explanation seems as likely as any.