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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;red_spork, post: 2201752, member: 74282&quot;]<img src="http://gallery.jordanmontgomery.us/upload/2015/07/25/20150725031215-22668b5a.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> </p><p>This denarius is a birthday gift from my dad that recently arrived. A while back he had asked if there was any way he could get an ancient coin for me, so I sent him a few from my Vcoins wishlist and I think he definitely chose the best one of the group. Really beautiful old cabinet toning on this one and the bust of Roma is even better in-hand. Unfortunately, I don&#039;t have much to write about the history on this one: Crawford indicates that the name of the moneyer is not completely certain, and there are no writings mentioning this particular Pinarius Natta, if that is his name, but that he is likely related to the Pinarius Natta who is thought to have minted a very similar issue(Crawford 208) in 149 BC, which only differs in a few small stylistic ways and also in its reverse legend being &quot;NATA&quot; as opposed to &quot;NAT&quot;.</p><p><br /></p><p>While I can&#039;t say much about the moneyer, there are some really interesting things to note. The first is its value: the &quot;X&quot; on this coin indicates a value of 10 asses because this coin was minted before the re-tariff of 141 BC which saw the denarius revalued at 16 asses. Additionally, you can see a few &quot;tick marks&quot; that have been made on this denarius. Those were to confirm that it was made of solid silver(and not simply a plated counterfeit), and are a sort of ancient equivalent of someone checking a bill with a counterfeit detector pen today. With some issues like athenian tets, test cuts are quite common, but with Republican issues you see far fewer test cuts but lots of punch marks, some that are small ticks like these, some that are in the shapes of letters or various symbols. Some people have event built collections around trying to collect as many punch marks as possible.</p><p><br /></p><p>Full ID: Roman Republic AR denarius(19.18mm, 3.45g). Pinarius Natta. 155 BC. Obverse: Head of Roma right in winged helmet, X (mark of value) behind. Reverse: Victory in galloping biga right, holding whip and reins, NAT below horses, ROMA on tablet in exergue. Near VF. A few bankers tick marks. Crawford 200/1; Pinaria 2; Sydenham 382</p><p><br /></p><p>Anyone else got any pre-retariff denarii? Let&#039;s see &#039;em![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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