Wow, capturing a Roman Denarius has been pretty elusive! During the War with Hannibal or the 2nd Punic War, Rome had been decimated in three major battles of Trebia, Trasemine, and Cannae within an 18 month period during Dec-218 through Aug-216 BCE. Roman casualties at the hand of the Cartheginians were catastrophic for Rome with estimated combined deaths and captured of upwards of 150,000 - mostly killed.* This would INCLUDE both Itallian Allies and Roman Legions. However, this MASSIVE loss of Soldiers is dramatically illustrated in the population graph below. All are estimates, but the RELATIVE change in Rome's population is dramatic! (see estimated population below)** Consequently, Rome was RUNNING OUT OF MONEY! The ORIGINAL Silver Denarius*** or commonly known as the Roman Didrachm or later the Quadrigatus from the 3rd Century BCE were twice as heavy as the common Denarius of Rome after the reforms of 212/211 BCE. They were basically the equivelent of the Carthage Shekel or Magna Graecia Didrachm in size. During this period of the 3rd Century BCE, these were actually called Denarius / Denarii by the Romans as they were 10-As units.*** I have been wanting to get a Roman Republic AR Denarius from the Crawford 44/5 series for some time. This is an early version / first version of the AR Denarius and other AR coins issued in Rome as the New Denarius Reform. Well, JUST won this little guy in a recent auction, KINDA suspecting it was NOT the elusive Crawford 44/5 AR Denarius... Yup! I messed up in REVERSE again... suspecting it was NOT the elusive (to me) Crawford 44/5... Chatted with @red_spork after my capture, and he confirmed that I got ANOTHER Rare Crawford 68/1b Sicily issue AR Denarius. Checking with Wildwinds, they had no 68/1b; CNG Research only has one 68/1b; and ACSearch only has three 68/1b - one of which is the one sold in CNG. In my posting of my "original" First Denarius of the Reform 212/211, I was corrected. I had actually captured a more RARE issue from Sicily... RR Anon AR denarius Roma 211-206 BCE ROMA incus Dioscuri single horn-helmet Sear37; Crawford 68/1b SICILY ISSUE RARE was originally attributed as Crawford 44/5 https://www.cointalk.com/threads/th...narius-and-its-influence.300387/#post-2807610 And my Crawford 44/ series: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/th...narius-and-its-influence.300387/#post-2807610 [I want to say a BIG THANK YOU to @red_spork who has helped me as well as cover my back as I fumble around collecting the Roman Republic coins! I LOVE the History, I am just not a Numismatist!] So NOW, I have TWO mess-up Denarii (Crawford 68/1b) that are actually more RARE than my TARGET Crawford 44/5 coins! FEEL FREE TO POST YOUR COOL DENARII !!! OR ANY COOL COIN STORIES and/or COINS! * Wikipedia: Battle of Trebia; Battle of Trasimene; Battle of Cannae **"Roman population counts Modern controversy about Roman population size stems from the fact that surviving tallies, if taken at face value (i.e., if thought to refer to same reference group), are impossible to reconcile with one another. The basic problems have been set out at great length many times before and need not be recounted here in detail.2 To summarize very briefly, Roman sources dating from the first century BCE to the fourth century CE but presumably drawing on earlier records, report citizen head counts for 25 different occasions from the beginning of the third century BCE to the end of the second century BCE. Unamended, these totals range from 137,000 to 395,000 registered individuals. ..." ** **Roman population size: the logic of the debate Version 2.0 July 2007 Walter Scheidel Stanford University https://www.princeton.edu/~pswpc/pdfs/scheidel/070706.pdf ***Coinage of the Roman Economy, 300 B.C. to A.D. 700, Harl, Kenneth W. One of my Denarius / Didrachm during this period... Approx 8+g: Roman Republic Anonymous AR Denarius / Didrachm 280-275 BCE Mars-Horse FIRST AR Coin of Rome! FEEL FREE TO POST YOUR COOL DENARII !!! OR ANY COOL COIN STORES / COINS!
WOW another great historic write up, and love your new denarius. I look forward to these write ups of yours, learn a lot from each one. Thanks.
I have this one cataloged as Craw 44/5 ANONYMOUS ROMAN REPUBLIC AR Denarius OBVERSE: Helmeted head of Roma right; behind, X REVERSE: The Dioscuri galloping right; in exergue, ROMΛ in raised letters within linear frame Struck at Rome 214-213 BC 19.8mm, 3.45g Sydenham 140. Crawford 44/5
As I understand the denarius was revalued from 10 copper asses to 16 asses in 140 BC , some denarii are marked XVI after 140 BC, but many are not and still show the X as this one:
Excellent pickup! Both of your examples are beautiful and better than mine even if now you've got a duplicate. If you ever decide to get rid of one let's talk. One of the two or more Sicilian mints of this period minted these denarii(and quinarii and sestertius) with a big "horn" or whatever that is: Another mint in Sicily however minted anonymous denarii in a different style without the horn but which generally have a small loop under the edge of the visor and in a particularly well executed style: Take the numbers of these you find on ACSearch with a grain of salt. Most anonymous denarii, quinarii, sestertii and victoriati that come to market are identified as Crawford 44 or Crawford 53. If you look at those on ACSearch you will find more incorrectly attributed ones of these varieties than you will find correctly attributed ones and even big auctioneers like CNG make these mistakes so you really have to pay close attention to them and double check their work when buying.
Nice problem to have! I gotta say I like the style better on your first mistake. You should indeed talk to @red_spork about the latest one, though I know you have great difficulty parting with any of your coins. But maybe you're not so attached to this one yet...
it's good when ya mess up and STILL do good! everybody needs a Dioscuri hat coin trick or two.. reverse Antiochus l Soter bronze.
Awesome write up and great coin, Brian. It's still a beautiful early example of a Roman denarius. Great catch! Also that Roma didrachm is one of my favorite coin I've seen on all of CT! Here is my much loved and oft shown 44/5 Roman Republic, Second Punic War (218-201 BC) AR Denarius. Anonymous, struck ca. 211 BC Wt.: 4.2 g Dia.: 20 mm Obv.: Helmeted head of Roma right. X in left field Rev.: Dioscuri galloping right. ROMA in exergue and partially incuse on raised tablet Ref.: Crawford 44/5. Sydenham 167. RBW 169. Old Cabinet Tone. Ex NAC 100 Part II And my write up on it here For a second there I was afraid it was the 44/5 brinkman group 3 I pointed out to you a few weeks back that you were referring to and that I made a mistake! Glad to see that's not the case though
