Featured Roman Republic denarii with reverses showing animals (other than horses)

There's a series of Republican coins with a donkey (ass) symbol on the reverse (Cr. 195). I have a few of them - as, semis, triens. There's also a quadrans, sextans and uncia which I don't have. This is the triens (Cr 195/3):



Cr. 220/1 has a donkey's head on the obverse:




For a different animal - I don't think we've had a butterfly before - this is an as from the "Butterfly & Vine" series - Cr. 184/1a:


ATB,
Aidan.

 

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A large and very disgruntled sow has joined my Republican zoo. (The eternally-about-to-perish-heifer whom everyone thought was a bull has joined as well, although I introduced her in a separate thread because there was so much to say about her gender!)

Roman Republic, C. Sulpicius C.f. Galba, AR Serrate Denarius, 106 BCE. Obv. Jugate heads of Dei Penates left, D•P•P [Dei Penates Publici] beneath heads / Rev. Two soldiers facing each other, holding spears and pointing at sow lying down between them with forelegs extended; S above. In exergue: C•SVL•ICI•C•F. [Indication of undertype on right of reverse, causing loss of detail.] RSC I Sulpicia 1, Crawford 312/1, Sydenham 572, Sear RCV I 189 (ill.) Purchased from Marc Breitsprecher; Ex. Madroosi Collection.



See Sear RCV I at p. 108: “Crawford’s interpretation of this interesting type seems the most convincing: it refers to Aeneas’ [landing at and founding of] Lavinium (home of the Sulpicia gens) with the Penates, and the subsequent miracle of the great white sow [giving birth to 30 piglets], which foretold the founding of Alba Longa,” where the soil was more fertile, 30 years later.

It's too bad about the overstrike/undertype, because it basically caused the loss of all detail in the soldier on the right. (He does look happy, though!) I very much doubt that it's possible to discern what's underneath.



As for the "Madroosi Collection," it's apparently the made-up name for the collection of a good friend of Marc Breitsprecher who died a couple of years ago, and used to be an Ebay dealer. This particular coin came originally from an old collection in Philadelphia.

 

Thanks for the "Madroosi Collection" information. I see that I have three coins from that collection, all from a Vauctions sale by Mark Breitsprecher's company in 2014.

ATB,
Aidan.