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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Marsyas Mike, post: 2913451, member: 85693&quot;]Thank you for writing that Marsyas denarius up, Parthicus.&nbsp; I would&#039;ve gladly paid $22 for that - worn, yes, but good metal, nice tone, and a couple of banker&#039;s marks (I like banker&#039;s marks).&nbsp; The rest of you have some very fine examples as well - thanks for sharing. </p><p><br /></p><p>I am very interested in not only the coin, but the legend/myth of Marsyas as well.&nbsp; Recently I picked up this book by Jocelyn Penny Small called <i>Cacus and Marsyas in Etrusco-Roman Legend</i> - a scholarly work, she devotes a lot of space to the Censorinus denarius and the statue in the Forum that it was based on.&nbsp; In the back are excerpts of what must be every single ancient reference to Marsyas. </p><p><br /></p><p>She does make one mistake - she notes the Censorinus Marsyas as wearing a pileus - this is not the case, unless there is some variety I have not found.&nbsp; Crawford notes this error in numismatic references as well. </p><p><br /></p><p>A peculiarity of this issue is the use of control marks - this must be one of the most half-hearted efforts in Roman Republican coinage of using these.&nbsp; Very few dies were used with the control marks, the vast majority of these having no control marks at all.&nbsp; It&#039;s as if they started out with them and then said to heck with it. </p><p><br /></p><p>Here is Crawford (note the number of dies - the control mark issues are very small compared to the plain type): </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]703913[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>To add to Doug&#039;s interesting examples, here is what I believe to be a barbaric imitation of this issue.&nbsp; The photo is from a European eBay auction - I was going to bid on it, but the price lofted beyond my ability to pay (note the retrograde N on the reverse):</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]703914[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]703915[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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