Just won this interesting coin from Artemide Aste. I love the history behind these coins. There is a link below from the auction house which goes into some detail about the coins. From the auction house: "Among the coins presented here, many are not listed in RRC’s Table XXIX (Pair Number 5, 13, 15, 17, 23, 35 offered for the first time in a public sale) and some are not in any public collections:" My coin is pair #15. There are 5 known examples. Feel free to post your favourite RR coins. For more details on these coins See: " An Unprecedented Important Collection of Cr. 363 / 1a-b " L. Censorinus. AR Denarius, 82 BC. Pair number: 15. D / Laureate head of Apollo right. On right, [fish] off flan. R / L. CENSOR. The satyr Marsyas standing left, with right arm raised and holding wine-skin over left shoulder; behind, column bearing statue on top. On right, letter D. Cr. 363 / 1a. B. (March) 24. AR. g. 3.85 mm. 16.50 RRRR. Of the highest rarity, only 5 known specimens. Old tone cabinet. VF. The gash across the reverse surface is an 'al marco'. (C. Stannard 'The adjustment to the mark of the weight of Roman Republican denarii blanks by gouging' in 'Metallurgy in numismatics vol 3' Royal Numismatic Society, 1993).
WOW- a rare beauty Andrew! RRRR! This one is still on the way from Europe. Only am leaning to a good provenance on these coins these days with other parameters including beauty and spirituality.. t Denar 76 v. Chr. Römische Republik L. Lucretius Trio, Kopf des Neptun / Cupido auf Delphin s-ss, schöne alte Tönung Grade: s-ss, schöne alte Tönung | Abbreviations Catalog: Craw. 390/2; Syd. 748 Material: Silver Weight: 3.84 g L. Lucretius Trio Denar Rom, 76 v. Chr. Vs.: Kopf des Neptun mit Lorbeerkranz n. r., dahinter Dreizack, darüber Kontrollmarke Rs.: L LVCRETI / TRIO, Cupido reitet auf Delphin n. r. ex Slg. Hommel, mit altem Sammlerzettel
@Mike Margolis I love the reverse on your coin! A great choice. As for provenance I am now choosing more coins with provenance. I still have to like the coin however.
Me and my avatar love it. I have a couple, but none with a scoop out of them. As Bing noted, the Marsyas tale is great (and grisly). Here is a die clash example that I got a while back I don't think I've posted. Here is my effort to outline the clash part:
Not remembering the story I looked it up on wiki and have pasted it below. Soooo, is the wine skin slung over his shoulder a reference to he himself having been skinned to be used as a wine skin? Edit In the contest between Apollo and Marsyas, the terms stated that the winner could treat the defeated party any way he wanted. The contest was judged by the Muses,[11] Marsyas played his flute, which Put everyone there into a frenzy, and they started dancing wildly. When it was Apollo's turn, he played his lyre so beautifully that everyone was still and had tears in their eyes. The match ended in a draw. Some accounts state that, to decide the winner, Apollo played his lyre upside down, and because Marsyas couldn't do that with his flute, he lost. Other account states that Apollo lent his beautiful voice, against which Marsyas couldn't compete, and hence lost the match.[12] Yet another version states that Marsyas played the flute out of tune, and hence accepted his defeat. Out of shame, he assigned to himself the penalty of being skinned for a winesack.[13] He was flayed alive in a cave near Celaenae for his hubris to challenge a god. Apollo then nailed Marsyas' skin to a pine tree,[14] near Lake Aulocrene (the Turkish Karakuyu Gölü), which Strabo noted was full of the reeds from which the pipes were fashioned.[15] Diodorus Siculus felt that Apollo must have repented this "excessive" deed, and said that he had laid aside his lyre for a while,[16] but Karl Kerenyi observes of the flaying of Marsyas' "shaggy hide: a penalty which will not seem especially cruel if one assumes that Marsyas' animal guise was merely a masquerade."[17]Classical Greeks were unaware of such shamanistic overtones, and the Flaying of Marsyas became a theme for painting and sculpture. His brothers, nymphs, gods and goddesses mourned his death, and their tears, according to Ovid's Metamorphoses, were the source of the river Marsyas in Phrygia, which joins the Meander near Celaenae, where Herodotus reported that the flayed skin of Marsyas was still to be seen,[18] and Ptolemy Hephaestion recorded a "festival of Apollo, where the skins of all those victims one has flayed are offered to the god."[19] Plato was of the opinion that it had been made into a wineskin.[20] Apollo flaying Marsyas by Antonio Corradini (1658–1752), Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Congrats on the pickup, Orfew. I've always wanted one of these but have yet to find quite the right one.
My first one is fourree and was #18 or 81 in some collection The second is a bit more clear than most showing the statue on the column. I can't say I see it as Minerva. I see I need to correct the label on this photo.
Nice coin and write-up! This is another of the Roman Republican coins with a great story, if you are not too squeamish. I have one ancient coin an a prison. I have not removed it because I may want to sell it and the ruff obverse may sell better encased.
Agree. I wonder what percentage of slab buyers care about the 3 surface or will only see the AU. It has a particularly nice face on Marsyas.
I've got this one up for sale, but that Artemide study was fascinating, and those coins are now extremely well documented, right down to the very die that each coin emerged from. Your rare censorious should prove to be a great acquisition. I don't know where the rest of the coins that were not part of the study will fit in, but mine doesn't have enough flan behind the post to have an identifying letter. I've also got a story about our pointing Satyr: A statue of Marsyas stood in the Roman forum, as well as other ancient cities. It was usually placed near the seat of Justice. Some historians believe it to be so placed to hold forth an example of the severe punishment that arrogant presumption brings on. Marsyas had presumed he could play his flue better than Apollo, his Lyre. Once Apollo demonstrated that his playing was superior to Marsyas’, Apollo lashed Marsyas to a pine tree and thoroughly flogged him, to the point of actually skinning him. Apollo intended to make the punishment severe because Marsyas was blatantly arrogant in his presumption that he could out do Apollo at anything. Several Greek historians note that Marsyas’ skin was on display at a couple of Greek villages. During Roman times, it’s likely that the statue, standing in the place where justice was administered, was intended to hold forth an example of the severe punishment of arrogant presumption. In Rome the statue was frequented by courtesans (as well as lawyers). These ladies of the night used to crown the statue with chaplets of flowers. Perhaps the prostitutes felt like kindred spirits, identifying with the god who also challenged the rules and the status quo. On the other hand, Marsyas was known for his devotion to upholding civil law, hence the right hand pointing upward on the coin, reminding those in possession of the coin that the state was in charge and was to be respected. There is another famous story about the statue of Marsyas in Rome. Julia, daughter of Augustus, at the time when she was a young woman, was known to frequent the statue and participate in crowning it with flowers. Indeed, she must have been going through a rebellious adolescent phase, as Pliny tells us that she didn’t stop with leaving flowers, but, like the courtesans that she celebrated with, she too sold her favors at the statue. Dad, the most powerful man in the world, was extremely upset, but Pliny didn’t make us privy to the details of the father-daughter talk.
Well, it has been several weeks but my coin finally arrived today. There was a postal strike in Canada so this was held up for quite a while. It looks lighter in the photo. In person it has a nice even cabinet toning. It really is lovely in person. It is finally safe in my Abafil tray. This is my photo. Here is a photo of the nice certificate they sent me. It has a nice photo and it is laminated. It will go into my record binder.
