Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;eparch, post: 8025618, member: 89211&quot;]An excellent idea for a thread.</p><p><br /></p><p>Julius Caesar is described in the ancient sources as having a scrawny neck, and this is often shown on his portrait coins, such as this posthumous one</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1391057[/ATTACH]</p><p>Julius Caesar AR Denarius. L. Livineius Regulus, moneyer. Rome, 42 BC.</p><p>Wreathed head to right; laurel branch behind, winged caduceus before</p><p>&nbsp;/ Bull charging to right; L•LIVINEIVS above, REGVLVS below.</p><p><br /></p><p>Crawford 494/24;Sear HRCI 115 </p><p><br /></p><p>Ex Conte Alessandro Magnaguti Collection, P. &amp; P. Santamaria, 14 October 1948, lot 330.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>However, on one issue, which Sear in HRCI dates as the first after</p><p>his assassination, the portrayal of the neck makes this portrait&nbsp; almost a caricature. He appears to believe it was done in great haste </p><p><br /></p><p>This coin was once part of Andrew McCabe&#039;s collection and I hope he won&#039;t mind my appending his note on it , proposing different dating to Sear and Crawford.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1391059[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Julius Caesar AR Denarius. Rome, January-February 44 BC. M. Mettius, moneyer.</p><p><br /></p><p>IMPER upwards to left, CAESAR downwards to right; wreathed head of Caesar right; lituus and simpulum behind</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;M•METTIVS, Venus Victrix standing to left, holding Victory in outstretched right hand and transverse sceptre in left, resting her left elbow on shield set on celestial globe; D to left.</p><p><br /></p><p>Crawford 480/17</p><p><br /></p><p>From the Andrew McCabe Collection, collector&#039;s ticket included;</p><p>Privately purchased from Münzhandlung Ritter, 2006.</p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;Ted Buttrey in &#039;Caesar at Play: Some Preparations for the Parthian Campaign, 44 BCE&#039;, 2015, makes a convincing case that all the Caesar portrait types in RRC 480 excepting the one accidental mule, an error coin wrongly classified as RRC 480/20, were struck prior to his death in March and to fund his Parthian campaign. Bernhard Woytek makes similar arguments in Arma et Nummi. I have always thought the sequential order proposed by Alföldi and adopted unchanged by Crawford, didn&#039;t allow for the evidently parallel workshops shown by the very different styles and flans of each type. I have long been convinced that all of RRC 480/1 through RRC 480/19 plus the fractions were struck in the first two and a half months of the year. Certainly the number of dies - less than 200 - makes that a physically easy task. I discussed this with Buttrey and Woytek (on a Saturday afternoon in Cambridge three years ago) who are totally supportive, and I hope to follow with an alternative study to the Alföldi/Crawford arrangement in time. First I have to work on bronzes for a while though. Anyway, this Mettius denarius was certainly struck during Julius Caesar&#039;s lifetime. It has a particularly fine reverse strike for an issue notable for less than fine strikes.&quot; - Andrew McCabe.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in