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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;cmezner, post: 25810206, member: 87809&quot;]On the reverse of this denarius the consul Lucius Iunius Brutus is walking between two lictors, each carrying an axe over the shoulder, preceded by an accensus.</p><p>This reverse design was the prototype for the famous AU Koson stater, Crawford, CMRR, p. 238: &quot;A remarkable issue of gold staters, imitated from the denarii of M. Brutus”. This stater, and a companion denarius issued by Brutus in the same year (Cr. 433/2) depicting L. Iunius Brutus on the obverse, and C. Servilus Ahala on its reverse, announces, in Crawford&#039;s words, &quot;the moneyer&#039;s admiration for those of his ancestors who were tyrannicides and the production of the issue forms part of a pattern of consistent opposition to Pompey&#039;s real or supposed intentions to achieve sole rule.&quot; (Crawford, Roman Republican Coinage, Vol. 1, p. 455).</p><p>Lictors were the &#039;guards&#039; assigned to important magistrates clearing the way for them by walking before a magistrate; however, on this coinage, Brutus, the magistrate is walking between two lictors. They carried &#039;fasces&#039;, a bundle of rods with an axe inserted, which represented power over life and death.</p><p>The number of lictors was according to the rank of the magistrate, a consul had 12 lictors, a praetor 6.</p><p>Accensus were public officers who attended on several of the Roman magistrates. They summoned the people to the assemblies, and those who had lawsuits to court; they preserved order in the assemblies and the courts, and proclaimed the time of the day.</p><p>This coin is the first coin, as far as we know, to have the portrait of the Roman goddess Libertas with the inscription of her name in the obverse. It should be obvious that this coin is the prototype for all depictions of Liberty called for in&nbsp; coinage in the Mint Act of 1792.</p><p><br /></p><p>Marcus Junius Brutus was the son of Marcus Junius Brutus and Julius Caesar’s former mistress, Servilia. By 59 BC he acquired the alternative name Quintus Caepio Brutus through adoption by his uncle, Quintus Servilius Caepio.</p><p>His ancestor Lucius Junius Brutus overthrew Tarquinius Superbus, the last Etruscan king of Rome.</p><p><br /></p><p>The attribution is: Crawford 433/1; Sydenham 906a; Babelon Junia 31a; RBW 1542; BMCRR Rome 3861.</p><p><br /></p><p>A quick search using acsearch shows that this denarius is not rare, it could be pricey but not rare.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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