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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;TIF, post: 2264642, member: 56859&quot;][ATTACH=full]450193[/ATTACH]</p><p><b>Roman Republic fourée mule denarius</b></p><p><b>L. Antestius Gragulus, 136 BCE, and C. Renius, 138 BCE</b></p><p>ancient forgery, 3.18 gm</p><p>Obv:&nbsp; Roma helmeted head right, * below chin, GRAG behind</p><p>Rev:&nbsp;&nbsp; Juno Caprotina in a biga of goats, C・RENI below, ROMA in exergue</p><p>Ref:&nbsp; Obverse S.115, Cr.238/1, Syd.451, RSC Antestia 9; Reverse S.108, Cr.231/1, Syd.432, RSc Renia 1</p><p><br /></p><p>I am thrilled to have acquired this fun little coin.&nbsp; While fourées (ancient plated counterfeit coins) might not be everyone’s cup of tea, I know many of you here like them and own them.&nbsp; I’ve been particularly envious of <a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/fouree-denarius-mule-vespasian-domitian.235482/" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/fouree-denarius-mule-vespasian-domitian.235482/">John Anthony’s Vespasian “zombie” mule denarius</a>.</p><p><br /></p><p>Doug, Steve, Eng, Zumbly, Cucumbor, Noob, and other CoinTalk members have fun fourées… I wanted one too <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie3" alt=":(" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />.&nbsp; It took a while to find one that called to me but for once I was patient.&nbsp; One whimsical subset I’m building is “Alternative Modes of Transportation”:&nbsp; coins featuring people riding on something other than horses, or chariots drawn by something other than horses.&nbsp; In Roman Republican coinage there are numerous amusing options.&nbsp; Various errors such a brockages are fairly common in the Roman Repubican era; fourées are too.&nbsp; <i>Mule</i> fourées are harder to find.&nbsp; With this one coin I ticked three checkboxes on The List:</p><p><br /></p><p>✔︎&nbsp; fourée</p><p>✔︎&nbsp; mule</p><p>✔︎&nbsp; goat biga</p><p><br /></p><p>Very efficient.&nbsp; <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie8" alt=":D" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>The prevailing opinion seems to be that fourées were not struck from official dies.&nbsp; For a good discussion of fourées, see <a href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/fourree.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/fourree.html" rel="nofollow">Doug&#039;s webpage</a>.&nbsp; I’ve looked through all of acsearch, CNG’s archives, and whatever catalogs I have and did not find a die match for either side of my coin.&nbsp; The style certainly looks official enough, but I’ve yet to find a die match.&nbsp; This doesn’t prove that the dies were unofficial but it does skew the odds.</p><p><br /></p><p>I’d love to know how this coin came to be.&nbsp; Since we’ll never know, I’ve imagined the following story.</p><p><br /></p><p>...</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Rome, 150 BCE</b></p><p><br /></p><p>“Appi!&nbsp; Get in here and help your sister with this amphora!”</p><p><br /></p><p>He pretends not to hear his mother.&nbsp; Squinting and hunched close to the ground, with a stick he makes a few more strokes in the portrait he’s drawn at the edge of the dirt road.&nbsp; <i>Not bad</i>, he thinks.&nbsp; <i>It looks like Pater, or it would if he had a seedling growing out of his ear.</i>&nbsp; He plucks the offending plant and gathers rocks to place protectively around the portrait.&nbsp; <i>Maybe I can finish it after supper.&nbsp; It’s the best one I’ve done so far.</i></p><p><br /></p><p>“Appius Cornelius, you get in this house right this minute, young man!”</p><p><br /></p><p>Focused on his work, he didn’t notice the older boy’s approach, nor the foot carefully placed so that Appi would trip upon standing up.</p><p><br /></p><p>Windmilling his arms, Appi tries to regain balance but tumbles directly on the dirt portrait.</p><p><br /></p><p>“Aww.&nbsp; Did you ruin your precious mud pie, little Caecelius?”</p><p><br /></p><p>Without looking up Appi knew the voice.&nbsp; Lucius Antestius Gragulus.&nbsp; <i>Well, it could be worse.&nbsp; At least this time he didn’t give me a wedgie.</i></p><p><br /></p><p><b>Rome, 136 BCE</b></p><p><br /></p><p>Sweat was dripping down his nose onto the die.&nbsp; It didn’t have far to fall; his nose was mere inches away. Sharpening his graver, he put the final touches on Roma&#039;s face.</p><p><br /></p><p>Nearsighted to the point of near blindness, he was lucky to have such artistic talent.&nbsp; What work would otherwise be available for someone like him?&nbsp; In the three years since he’d been in the service of the Rome mint he had helped make hundreds of dies.&nbsp; His work was superior to most of the other engravers’ dies, although he knew better than to brag.&nbsp; Short, slight, and squinty meant being an easy target for bullies, even at eighteen years of age.&nbsp; In name, he was only a junior apprentice.&nbsp; His job was to add the lettering after the master carved the design.&nbsp; In reality, his master made him stay hours later to practice carving the main devices.&nbsp; Recently Appius found that his own &quot;practice&quot; dies were being passed off as the master’s work.&nbsp; The revelation started a chain of events which would change his life.</p><p><br /></p><p><i>I’m eighteen and still a junior apprentice.&nbsp; My work is better than the master’s yet I’m still being paid as a menial laborer.&nbsp; I’ll never be elevated to master or even junior apprentice as long as that jackass is alive, and Antonia will never marry me until I have at least made apprentice.&nbsp; I’m lucky that she even likes me.&nbsp; People say she’s ugly, maybe that’s why she accepts my advances.&nbsp; She sure </i>feels<i> beautiful though...</i></p><p><br /></p><p><i>Thwack.</i>&nbsp; “Appius, you scraggy little cinaedus!&nbsp; You’re going to rust out that die before the first denarius is struck!&nbsp;&nbsp; Move you stupid head further away and stop sweating!”</p><p><br /></p><p><i>It’s as hot as a brazier in here, you pig’s ass</i>, he thought, but he wiped his brow and raised his head, at least until the dominus was out of sight.</p><p><br /></p><p><i>No more</i>, he silently vowed.&nbsp; <i>I snuck a Renius die out of here two years ago, and now I have but to engrave the letters on this Gragulus.&nbsp; Rufus has been making plated flans in a workshop hidden near the docks.&nbsp; If we spread the forgeries out in the city, maybe get them into the hands of travelers and soldiers, we won’t have to put up with these fools any longer.&nbsp; I wonder how Antonia would feel about moving to Sicily?</i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p>...</p><p><br /></p><p>Please show your fourées, mules, and unusual modes of transportation <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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