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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Alegandron, post: 3082443, member: 51347&quot;]I am not the expert, just a casual collector.</p><p><br /></p><p>I understood from some reading that the Arabia Felix Quinarius was minted to facilitate trade for spices (frankincense,etc.) with the Romans for a relatively short period.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here are the attributes and comments:</p><p>Arabia Felix, Himyarite Kings, Tha’ Ran Ya’ NB</p><p>Ar Unit (Quinarius), 14mm, 1.5g, 5h; Raidan mint, 2nd Century AD.</p><p>Obv.: Head right, within circular torque, monogram behind.</p><p>Rev.: Head right, scepter before, kings name and mint in South Arabian Script around.</p><p>Reference: Munro-Hay 3.25</p><p>Comments:&nbsp; Here is a small, ancient Yemeni silver coin, of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himyarite_Kingdom" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himyarite_Kingdom" rel="nofollow">Himyarite Kingdom</a>. The Himyarites occupied the area of Southern Arabia known to Romans as Arabia Felix. They produced the frankincense that their Arab cousins, the Nabataeans, exported to the northern world. By the time this coin was minted, however, the Romans had discovered a sea route from Alexandria to Arabia Felix, severely limiting the Nabataean overland trade. The Romans traded extensively with the ancient Yemeni, so I don’t believe it’s a coincidence that these coins are roughly the same weight and fineness of early Imperial quinarii. The script is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_South_Arabian_script" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_South_Arabian_script" rel="nofollow">Ancient South Arabian</a>.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Again from my readings, many of the Cletic coins were minted in the roughly Quinarius size (approx 2g) and were considered / called Quinarii if they were circulated near the Roman borders.&nbsp; Although my Iceni is around 1g, I consider it the Quinarius type.</p><p><br /></p><p>I have a &quot;crazy man&quot; version of your Cato Quinarius in which I am trying to find out if it is an imitative or an official issue by a funky cellator:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]776448[/ATTACH]</p><p>RR Porcius Cato AR Quinarius 89 BC Bacchus Liber Victory seated S 248 Cr 343-2</p><p><br /></p><p>Here is a more official looking version on the Cato Quinarius:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]776449[/ATTACH]</p><p>RR AR Quinarius 89 BCE M Porcius Cato Crawford 343-2. Sear 248-OFFICIAL[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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