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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;red_spork, post: 2369262, member: 74282&quot;]I bought two coins this week and today received the first one: a victoriatus minted in Sicily circa 211-208 B.C. Those who know the history feel free to skip to below the image, but the gist of it is that initially, Rome(and much of Italy) had a bronze-only currency system based mostly on weight(a sort of bronze bullion type system). Trade with the Greek colonies necessitated the introduction of silver coins and Rome introduced the didrachm, also known as the quadrigatus as that was the most prevalent design on coins of this denomination. The financial stresses of the Second Punic War showed the flaws of the Italian bronze coinage system and forced Rome to adopt its own silver coinage system, so Rome introduced the integrated denarius system in which the silver was valued in the same units as the bronze and they could be used interchangeable. Contemporary with the introduction of the denarius was the introduction of the replacement for the quadrigatus: the victoriatus, featuring on its obverse a bust of Jupiter, and on its reverse victory crowning a trophy.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now that I&#039;ve discussed the history a bit, you might be wondering, &quot;what makes this different from an anonymous victoriatus from Rome or Apulia&quot;. That&#039;s actually a pretty good question, and the short answer is style, in particular the &quot;double skirt&quot; on the trophy, only found on this series of anonymous victoriati from Sicily. For the full answer, I direct readers to <a href="http://stevebrinkman.ancients.info/anonymous/AnonymousVictoriatii.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://stevebrinkman.ancients.info/anonymous/AnonymousVictoriatii.html" rel="nofollow">this</a> guide by Kenneth Friedman and Richard Schaefer that discusses the various types of fully anonymous victoriati and how to identify them. And now, without further ado, the coin itself:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]484256[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Roman Republic AR Victoriatus(17 mm, 3.35g). Anonymous, circa 211-208 B.C., Sicilian mint. Laureate head of Jupiter right. Border of dots / Victory right crowning trophy; in exergue, ROMA. Line border. Crawford 70/1; BMCRR Italy 139[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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