My Aes Rude - or Am I Rude?

Some other examples of early Roman cast currency from the 4th - 3rd century BC

 

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Wow @ancientcoinguru , gorgeous early Roman coins!!!

 

Thanks @Alegandron! I have a real fondness for early bronze Roman objects and aes grave. That's why I need a knucklebone!

 

Early cast AE coins? (sweet) ...

=> Ummm, I have a few but they're Celtic and Greek (are they allowed to play with your cool Roman cast babies?)

 

Nice items. I'd like an ax one day. Do not see ones advertised as RR often. I picked up a few interesting items this month.

The three in the top left were advertised as Aes Formatum fragments, or cast bar fragments. The smallest of these has a circular edge and could have been a coin, but any features on the piece are raised lines close to the broken edges.
The top left piece is a fragment of a Ramo Seco bar. You can see the center stem, but I do not see branches. A pretty nice piece none-the-less.
The bottom two pieces were advertised as Aes Signatum pieces. I see a few lines on the lower right piece, but can not identify a pattern. The lower left piece has raised areas that could be part of a larger pattern, but the piece is too small to be certain if there was a pattern or an irregular surface.

 

@stevex6, I've also got some early Greek cast AE (from Luceria and Tuder) that want to play

 

@rrdenarius, nice items! Could you provide measurements for your Aes Formatum and Aes Signatum fragments?

 

A little bit better description of the pieces above. I did not see exact matches of any of the Ramo Seco pieces in Thurlow & Vecchi or Vecchi. I will need some time to look at the copies of Aes Grave, E J Haeberlin and Le Monete dell’Italia antica, Raffaele Garrucci to see if I can find a better match for the RS pieces. Both books are available for free download, see my blog for RR references.

# - description

1. Aes formatum. Lot of three fragments, late 4th-early 3rd century BC. AE. g. 48.61; g. 22.25; g. 12.03.

a. 11.2 thick X 38.0 wide X 31.55 long. Looks like the end piece of a bar with rounded ends. Thinner at edge. One unbroken and two broken edges.

b. 9.1 thick X 33.2 X 18.8; edge piece of a bar, thin at edge & thicker away from edge. One unbroken, straight edge and two broken edges.

c. 6.4 thick X 21.0 X 26.75pie shaped portion of circular bar, coin? One unbroken, curved edge and two broken, straight edges.

2. Aes Signatum(?). A fragment, early 3rd century BC. AE. g. 32.04 R. mm. 20 x 21.
* 15.7 thick, at highest point X 28.6 X 20.8; edge piece of a bar with an unidentifiable shape. One unbroken, straight edge and three broken edges. The broken edges have high points that are worn or otherwise smoothed.

3. Aes Signatum(?). A fragment, early 3rd century BC. AE. g. 48.82 R. mm 19 x 48.
* 19.1 thick, at highest point X 48.8 wide (but bar was probably 10 to 15 mm wider) X 15 average length; this looks to be a piece of a bar that was taller in the center and thinner on the edges. One very short unbroken, edge and three broken edges.

4. Aes Signatum(?). A 'Ramo secco'(?) fragment, early 3rd cent. BC. AE. g. 31.65 RR. mm 26 x 29.
* 13.8 thick X 28.7 X 26.1. This piece looks a bit like Vecchi #8. The piece of a bar has a single raised line (stem?) down the center of the raised side. I do not see branches, but there could be one at one broken end. The piece has one unbroken side and three broken sides.

Oops, looks like my Word formatting was lost, but it looks readable.

 

@rrdenarius, a belated thank you for posting the measurements I requested!! I have a few aes formatum (though more would be nice) but an aes signatum is at the top of my wish list.

 

I just read a cool little article on how they made these "rocks". Evidently, they poured molten bronze or brass into a cauldron of water, stirring it so the bronze or brass broke into smaller clumps. I thought that would be way cool to watch, with the water instantly exploding into steam! Kinda reminds me of MAJOR coffee grounds in that pot of coffee. And it is an interesting way to make "pocket change"!!!

 

Love it.