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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;DonnaML, post: 5009810, member: 110350&quot;]I was lucky to receive this one: DHL Express notified me on Monday that the package containing it had been delivered to me -- which it hadn&#039;t -- and provided &quot;proof&quot; of delivery consisting of the signature of somebody I never heard of (who doesn&#039;t even live in my apartment building, as far as I can tell). Even though I had given them a signature release instructing them to leave the package at the door of my apartment if I weren&#039;t home. With a great deal of effort, I finally found a DHL customer service number allowing me to talk to a live person, who said that they would do an investigation. I didn&#039;t have much hope, though, and assumed that the DHL driver had just given the package to a random stranger in my building, who walked off with it.&nbsp; But my doorbell rang yeaterday evening, and it turned out to be someone from the building next door to me, explaining that they had delivered the package to her by mistake. Why she signed for it in the first place (since the envelope had the correct name and address on it), and why it took her 24 hours to walk over to my building to give it to me, I didn&#039;t bother asking. I&#039;m just happy to have it, even though it doesn&#039;t give me much confidence for the future!</p><p><br /></p><p>Roman Republic, C. Mamilius Limetanus, AR Serrate Denarius, 82 BCE Rome Mint. Obv. Draped bust of Mercury right, wearing petasus with two wings, caduceus over left shoulder, control letter “F” behind* / Rev. Ulysses walking right, wearing mariner’s clothing and pileus, holding staff in left hand and extending right hand towards his dog, Argus, who stands left at Ulysses’ feet with his head raised towards him; C•MAMIL downwards in left field, LIMETAN [TA ligate] upwards in right field. Crawford 362/1. RSC I Mamilia 6, Sear RCV I 282 (ill.), BMCRR 2717 and 2720-2721 [two examples of control letter “F”]. 21 mm., 4.04 g., 9 h.**</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1201711[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>*The only known control-letters for this issue are the 11 letters of the alphabet necessary to spell out a version of the moneyer’s name, C LIMETANVS C.F. See Crawford p. 377. There are 100 different obverse dies known for this issue (id. p. 375), meaning that there should be approximately 9 different dies per control-letter, assuming that they were distributed equally.</p><p><br /></p><p>**The reverse design alludes to the moneyer’s claim to descent from Telegonus, son of Ulysses and Circe. See Crawford p. 377. See also id. p. 220 (noting in connection with Crawford 149 that the Mamilii were a Tusculan family and claimed descent from Telegonus, Tusculum’s founder, through his daughter Mamilia). The family’s descent from Ulysses through Telegonus also explains the depiction of Mercury -- in legend, the great-grandfather of Ulysses -- on the obverse. Id. p. 377.&nbsp; For the tale of Ulysses’ encounter with his old dog Argus [Argos in Greek] upon his return to Ithaca, see Homer’s <i>Odyssey</i>, Book 17, lines 290-327.</p><p><br /></p><p>I think I&#039;ve mentioned before that I&#039;ve wanted one of these for a while, but rarely see them in decent condition.&nbsp; So when I saw this one, which actually has complete images on both sides, including the actual dog that&#039;s the point of the story, I had to have it! In hand, the details are sharper than the dealer&#039;s photo makes them look.</p><p><br /></p><p>I didn&#039;t know that the control-letters for this issue form a code spelling out the moneyer&#039;s name until I read it in Crawford.&nbsp; I&#039;m familiar with the Aeqvitas code on certain coins of Probus (which [USER=19463]@dougsmit[/USER] has written about), but I don&#039;t remember coming across anything like that before on a Roman Republican coin. Does anyone know of any other Republican examples of such a code, whether spelling out the moneyer&#039;s name or another word or phrase? I wonder if we collectively own enough different examples of this issue to spell out the name.</p><p><br /></p><p>Please post your own examples of this coin, or any other coin -- Republican, Imperial, Provincial, or Greek -- showing Ulysses/Odysseus.&nbsp; I don&#039;t think he was a popular figure on Roman coins, given his generally poor reputation in Rome, at least after Virgil&#039;s negative portrayal of him in the <i>Aeneid </i>as cunning and deceitful, as opposed to manly, forthright Trojans like Aeneas.&nbsp; He was always my favorite among the Greek heroes, though, when I read the <i>Iliad</i> as a child. Especially because of the <i>Odyssey</i>. I liked smart people; what can I say? Perhaps he appears on Greek coins? (OCRE and RPC yield 0 results for either name.)</p><p><br /></p><p>Or: post other coins showing Mercury. Or: post coins with dogs <u>not</u> depicting Diana, since I think we had a thread about Diana recently.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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