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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;DonnaML, post: 4563853, member: 110350&quot;]Thanks, [USER=89514]@curtislclay[/USER]; I was hoping you would comment.&nbsp; I would certainly prefer you to be correct, because that one Republican coin would otherwise be a singular exception to what I&#039;ve concluded is the &quot;rule.&quot;&nbsp; I take it that you agree with what I had to say in the rest of my post about about the actual personification of Virtus always being female -- as opposed to men on VIRTVS AVG reverses being depicted as representing the qualities of &quot;virtus,&quot; not Virtus herself -- and her being uniformly depicted on coins (including the reverse of my Valerian coin, on which I now realize she isn&#039;t fully-clothed after all) as signaling her femaleness by baring one breast?</p><p><br /></p><p>Do you have any idea why David Sear seems still to insist that Virtus is a male personification?&nbsp; Have you ever known him to attempt to reconcile that view with all those portrayals of Virtus with a bare female breast?</p><p><br /></p><p>Of course, the problem with the Republican coin is that it only shows Virtus&#039;s head, not the entire body. Your argument sort of assumes its own conclusion that the head must be female, based on the lexical argument and on coins that do show Virtus&#039;s entire body.&nbsp; Here&#039;s one other Republican coin I&#039;ve found that shows only Virtus&#039;s head on the obverse (identified as &quot;VIRTVS&quot;), a denarius of Mn. Aquilias Mn.f. from ca. 71 BCE (Crawford 401/1, Sear RCV I 336 (ill.), RSC I Aquilia 2): <a href="https://www.coinarchives.com/5d6268274425ffbcaea6d0ad47a5a77b/img/roma/e70/image01036.jpg" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.coinarchives.com/5d6268274425ffbcaea6d0ad47a5a77b/img/roma/e70/image01036.jpg" rel="nofollow">https://www.coinarchives.com/5d6268274425ffbcaea6d0ad47a5a77b/img/roma/e70/image01036.jpg</a> .&nbsp; I assume that you would identify this head as female as well -- and the face is certainly androgynous enough to be female -- despite the relatively short hair? Are there other Republican obverses with clearly female individuals on the obverse depicted with hair that short? Females, including Roma, are usually portrayed (to the best of my recollection) either with longer hair or their hair in a bun.</p><p><br /></p><p>Returning to the first Republican coin, I don&#039;t think there&#039;s much question that the two obverse heads are intended as a representation or signification of the two moneyers.&nbsp; Can you think of another example of a moneyer specifically portraying himself as signified by a female personification or deity?</p><p><br /></p><p>Again, your theory is certainly consistent with the evidence from the depiction of Virtus on Imperial coins, so your being correct would make sense, and I hope you are right![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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