The average condition of my RR bronze coins is lower than my RR silver. I find well worn bronze coins that shill show its major features good enough. I purchased a coin today that would normally be below the line. You can tell why I bought this coin from the obverse. Who would you expect on the obverse of a 3 dotter (Quadrans)? I do not like the ruff surfaces on this coin. The major features are there. You can tell it is an older coin because of the form of the letter A. This is the most common form of the letter A in early struck bronze coins, before 200 BC. A few other forms are common: The letter A we use today was a latecomer, 150 BC. Normally a Quadrans would have Hercules on the obverse. This coin has: Mercury. Roman Republic, anonymous AE Quadrans, Luceria, ca. 211-208 BC. Obv - Head of Mercury on the right, above three dots °°°, below L. Rev – Prow of Roman warship, in ex: three dots °°°. Weight = 10.51 grams Diameter = 23.3 mm Cr. 97 / 13d BMCRR – Italy _ _ , Grueber assignes no number to the Hercules / prow Quadrans shown between Italy #6 & Italy #7. There is no description in the main text for a Quadrans with Mercury, but one is mentioned in the notes. Grueber II pg 147 in footnote 3: “D’Ailly (Mon rom, pl. civ., nos. 4, 5) figures two quadrantes with the obverse type of the sextans, i.e. bust of Mercury…. which must be due to a blunder on the part of the die engraver. “ Garrucci – pg. 69, Table LXXXI #3 I have another error on a Quadrans. 3 dots on obverse & 4 on reverse. Post your not quite right coins.
Cool, Gene! Fun to find the oddballs! I believe this one to be a correct version. However, as you stated, it is kinda hard to get early RR Bronzes in any kind of decent condition...and/or that it is really chewed up from a cleaning process. This one is a little scyphate also. For this low of a denomination, I would have expected this to be well worn. RR Anon AE Semuncia 217-215 19mm Mercury Prow Sear 620 Craw 38-7
The Mercury quadrans is not an error type as there are multiple obverse dies. The type dates right from the start of the denarius coinage when there was a great deal of experimentation. This type is from the same series as the RRC 98 LT coinage. I explained at INC Taormina that the LT coinage and about half the RRC 97 L coinage was probably minted near Herdonia and not in Luceria. Other bronzes of the Luceria Canusium and "LT mint" include strange types including Dioscuri on horseback (sextans), a Dioscurus (uncia), Victory and quadriga (dextans) and other oddball types. This Mercury quadrans was merely one of the experiments at a time when it wasn't yet clear that the official coinage of Rome was about to standardize for the next hundred and fifty years. That hadn't yet happened. In the context of all the other coinage upheavals of the time, the Mercury quadrans was pretty interesting but not an error in my view. A desirable type.
A very nice example of this interesting and enigmatic type. I think it's more than "good enough" - "good enough" is "identifiable" for me at times with RR bronzes. This coin, while it has rough surfaces, is well-struck and most importantly has all the value marks on either side. An excellent acquisition.
If people catch onto this thread there will be hundreds of responses. We all have coins we would prefer to upgrade, but ultimately I suspect we all feel many are 'good enough'. I will post a few here, but will not attribute them, I feel if people find them of interest they can look them up: This one is rare enough that I likely wont see another one. Not that they do not otherwise exist in the sales catalogs, but they appear rarely enough that I cant always be there to spot another example to upgrade. And certainly not at the cost of this one! So, it is likely going to be 'good enough'. For some reason I find chickens monumentally hilarious. This coin is not rare and I have seen others, but the theme is actually more rare than many think. This coin really isnt good enough, but it will do for now. Even if I do upgrade I will keep this one. I've shown this one many times (obviously I really like it!). To my knowledge there are only two others outside museum collections. I was offered one of them, a magnificent EF example. I was being cheap and held my ground offering about 75% of the ask. That was a significant mistake, the coin went to Clio (from what I know). I am sure there will never be another on the market ever again. Sunk by my own hubris. Obviously this one will have to do. There are many others of course!
Here's an example of "good enough" from my collection, a coin I might not ever be able to upgrade as I only know of one other example in private hands. This is a Crawford 61/7 "victory" series uncia struck at a Second Punic War-era Central Italian Mint. To me it was identifiable and complete enough to make die comparisons and not tooled or smoothed so that was enough for me:
My 3 dot Mercury arrived today. The coin in hand is like the seller's pics. It did not see much wear, was struck from good dies for the type and centered. But... the environment was not good to the coin and there are small raised spots covering the coin. It is hard to see features unless light is just right. On the plus side, I made the TNA magazine club section with a write-up on the coin.
Congrats, must be nice to see your Quadrans Mercury in that magazine. Here's my quadrans Mercury coin:
