Roman Republican Anonymous Symbol Denarii

I'm hanging out drinking some wine and grooving on my latest prawn denarius and thought I'd share some of my cooler anonymous symbol denarii.

Several of the earlier Roman Republican anonymous issues of denarii and supporting fractional coinage shared a certain symbol theme which is very interesting to collect. I primarily only collect Republican silver and have only really scratched the surface of the symbols as there are quite a few.

Here's my prawn. Really with the size of that thing, I call it a sea monster.

Anonymous Prawn Series Denarius AR circa 179-170 ( ), Helmeted head of Roma r.; behind, X. Rev. Luna in prancing biga r.; below horses, prawn and ROMA in linear frame. Sydenham 343; Crawford 156/1; FFC 79 (this coin)

Numismatik Lanz Auction 88, Leo Benz Collection, November 23, 1998, Lot 83




Anonymous. 206-195 BC. AR Denarius (3.93g, 18.2mm, 4h ). Rome mint. Head of Roma right, wearing winged helmet, ornamented with griffin's head, the visor in three pieces, single-drop earring, and necklace; X (mark of value) to left / The Dioscuri on horseback riding right, each holding couched spear, and wearing chlamys, cuirass, and pileus, surmounted by star; below horses, boar right; ROMA on tablet in exergue. Crawford 121/2; Sydenham 252; RSC 20r; Kestner 289-327; BMCRR Italy 479; RBW 555.

Sternberg VII 24 November 24, 1977 lot 256





Anonymous Denarius Central Italy circa 211-208, AR (4.48g, 20.8mm, 12h). Helmeted head of Roma r.; behind, X. Rev. The Dioscuri galloping r.; behind, Victory with wreath. In exergue, ROMA. Sydenham 147. Crawford 61/1.

Bruder Egger Auction 45 November 12, 1913, Lot 856





Feel free to join the symbol fun by sharing your examples.

 

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Very nice @Carthago ! Hmmm... not a prawn, rather a Tiger Shrimp from The Bay of Thailand at a restaurant in Bankok! Washed down with an ice cold Singha! Major YUM!

STAR

RR Anon 211-206 BCE Victoriatus STAR Rare Sear 49 Syd 233a Craw 105-1
(yeah, well, whatever - it is called a "filled-in pentagram", hmm... me? Itsa STAR)


PIG

RR Victoriatus 206-195 BCE AR 16-5mm 2-61g Jupiter r Victory crowning trophy sow r in ex ROMA Syd 253 Russo RBW 554 Cr 121-1

 

All are very nice but the sow denarius is fantastic! Here are a few of my related coins including a related "victory" uncia(note the same obverse style as your "victory" denarius):

Roman Republic Æ Uncia(5.10g, 20mm), anonymous("Victory" series), 211-208 B.C., Central Italian mint. Helmeted head of Roma right. Behind, • / Prow right; above, Victory flying right with wreath and ROMA; below •. Crawford 61/7

A "Crescent" series denarius:

Roman Republic AR Denarius(19.9mm, 3.87g, 5h). Anonymous("Crescent" series). Circa 207 B.C. Rome mint. Helmeted head of Roma right; behind, X. Border of dots / Dioscuri galloping right; above, crescent; in linear frame, ROMA. Line border. Crawford 57/2; Sydenham 265
Ex. RBW Collection, Agora 53, 4/5/2016, lot 145, Ex. Paul Vecchi, 12/10/1988

A corn-ear quinarius. There is a matching denarius but it's far more rare and expensive than the quinarius.

Roman Republic AR quinarius(15mm, 2.05g, 11h). Anonymous, wheat-ear/corn-ear series, ca. 211-210 B.C. Sicilian mint. Helmeted head of Roma right, V behind / The Dioscuri riding right, each holds a spear; grain-ear/corn-ear below; in linear frame, ROMA. Crawford 72/4; Sydenham 194
Ex RBW Collection, Agora 73, 3/27/2018, lot 206, privately purchased from Dmitry Markov, 9/9/1994

 

All very nice anonymous denarii!
Here is one with a griffin:
169-158 BC - Roman Republic. Anonymous AR Denarius / Griffin
O: Head of Roma right, wearing winged helmet, X (mark of value) behind
Rx: The Dioscuri on horseback galloping right with spears forward, griffin below; ROMA in exergue
Size: 19.93 mm, Wt: 3.83 grams

 

Those are all gorgeous coins, @Carthago, as we've come to expect from you!

Here's a sea anenome as control symbol; fittingly, since the Poseidon's wife is on the obverse:


ROMAN REPUBLIC
Moneyer Q. Crepereius M.f. Rocus
69 BCE (revised from Crawford's 72 BCE)
AR serrate denarius; 3.99 gm
Obv: draped bust of Amphitrite seen from behind, with head turned r.; behind, sea anemone; horizontal I to right of right shoulder (only partly visible on this coin)
Rev: Neptune in biga of hippocamps right, holding reins and brandishing trident; above, I and below, Q·CREPER·M·F / ROCVS
Ref: Crawford 399/1b; Babelon Crepereia 1. Sydenham 796a. Rare.
from HJB BBS 200, October 2016
ex NAC 78 lot 1828, from the JD Collection of Roman Republican Coins

 

@Carthago, Thanks for starting this thread. I think we have some very common collecting interests. Your Prawn and Sow examples are exceptional. the Sow series is very rare in all grades, but yours must be among the finest known.

I don't have a Prawn, but I have a close cousin in the Bird/Tod series in a clever symbol/monogram combination:
RRC 141/1, 3.72 gm. Head of Roma/Luna in biga, below, TOD and bird symbol. CNG Electronic sale 364 lot 103. Ex. RBW, Ex Peus 322, 11/1/88, lot 56.


I don't have an RRC 121/2 Sow, but I have an RRC next door neighbor "dog" symbol:
RRC 122/2,
Dioscuri riding r. ROMA in raised letters in and framed border in exergue. Dog symbol below and in front of horses.
Ex Goodman collection, CNG 43, Sept 24, 1997, lot 1405


I don't have an early Victory symbol example, RRC 61/1 but here's another RRC next door neighbor. One of the rarer symbols I have is the early Rostrum Tridens
RRC 62/1 Rostrum-Tridens. 4.63 gm. Titano electronic auction M10, 14 December, 2017.

 

Nice, but I’m not sure they can compete with mine.

 

I've habitually delayed focus on early symbol denarii in my Roman Republican collecting to such an extent that it is now a glaring deficiency in my collection. I always think, "I'll get to them some day." In fact, I only acquired my first early symbol denarius last month. I was pleased with the coin, and then I was positively thrilled when I serendipitously found it in an old catalogue (while looking for something else, of course).



Rome. The Republic.
Anonymous Prawn Series, 179-169 BCE.
AR Denarius (3.87g).
Obv: Helmeted head of Roma r.; behind, X. Rev. Luna in biga r.; below horses, prawn; in exergue, ROMA in linear frame.
References: Sydenham 343; Crawford 156/1; BMCRR 585.
Provenance: Ex Frederick S. Knobloch Collection [Stack's, 3-4 May 1978, Lot 97].

 

Some lovely coins from all. I'm yet to acquire any anonymous symbol silver yet so I'll give you this extremely rare late 2nd century BC AS. I prefer to go with Mark Passehls attribution on these placing the bronze series at a Sardinian mint ca 103 BC for local circulation there, may explain why the series is so extremely rare, anyways, the symbol here is a palm branch, sadly it isn't that visible on mine so I'm including a picture with one visible from the British Museums specimen.

C. Sulpicius. 103 BC. AE AS (30mm, 32.68g). Unknown Sardinian mint.

Obverse: Laureate head of Janus, mark of value above.

Reverse: Prow right, above C·SVLPI, palm-branch in front and below; ROMA.

Reference: Crawford 312/2.

 

I have to say, I'm a bit envious of these two coins. The reverse prawn and pig, respectively, are about the two coolest what-the-heck? images I've ever seen on an ancient coin. They're exceptionally well rendered for the size of these coins.

 

Here are a few symbols that haven't been posted yet.

Phil Davis

 

Phil, These are fabulous examples. The upright spearhead denarius is just downright inspirational. I've seen these on Andrew McCabe's Flickr album of your collection but each time I look at your specimens, they look better.

 

Great RR coins!
I have a few:

anchor - one of my favorite symbols


the staff on this one is on the obv


star


this plumb bob is die symbol and one of my favorites


I like this die pair symbol set, scale and scale box!

 

As the saying the cloth trade went, "Never mind the quality, feel the width!" - I've got a good few anonymous RR coins with symbols in variable, usually bad, condition. These are the ones on denarii...

Rostrum prow - Cr. 114/1:


Crescent - 57/2:


Dolphin - 80/1a:


Spearhead - 88/2b:


Club - 89/2:
one

Staff - 106/3c:


Knife - 109/1:


Wreath - 110/1a:


Star - 113/1:


Butting Bull - 116/1b:


Rudder - 117A/1:


Female Head - 127/1:


Owl - 135/1:


TOD - big fourée bird - cf. 141/1:


TOD - small wren-like solid silver bird - 141/1:


Prawn - 156/1:


Fly - 159/2:


Feather - 163/1:


Griffin - 182/1:


I have a few more (I saw cornucopiae and pentagram denarii over the weekend in a box), but no more photos.

ATB,
Aidan.

 

That's a fantastic prawn. I've often sought out sea iconography on coins, mostly for the novelty and stark contrast to a very serious depiction of a god. I only have one comparable crayfish, conventionally assumed to be used because of the importance of water to the economy. I like to think it was there just because the engraver knew he could sneak in a crayfish where everyone would be expecting a dolphin:

 

Whoops - it's been pointed out that my "knife" symbol denarius above is from the second issue - 120/2, not 109/1. And indeed, the style is right for the second issue and the reverse border is a line rather than dotted.

I found the pentagram (second issue) pic - 129/1:


It looks a bit odd, so I must dig this up and look at it (and weigh it, the auction listing had it at 4.62g) - https://www.sixbid.com/browse.html?auction=2808&category=58305&lot=2363649

ATB,
Aidan.

 

A few more symbols still missing from this thread. The list here still isn't quite complete, but it's getting there.

 

One more from my collection, Apex and Hammer:
RRC 59/1b
Reverse:
Dioscuri riding r. ROMA in raised letters in frame. Above, Apex and hammer
Weight: 4.15 gm
Provenance: NAC 78 lot 374

 

Completely forgot I recently picked up a nice Anonymous Fly series denarius from the McCabe collection.



Anonymous. 179-170 BC. AR Denarius (19mm, 3.85 g, 5h). Fly series. Rome mint.

Obverse: Helmeted head of Roma right; X (mark of value) to left.

Reverse: Luna in prancing biga right; below, fly and ROMA in exergue.

Reference: Crawford 159/2

Provenance: CNG Electronic auction 432 (14 November 2018) lot 226, from the Andrew McCabe Collection, purchased from Germania Inferior in 2015. Ex Bertolami fine arts, Auction 15 (27 April 2015), lot 255.