My second and final purchase at the Denver ANA show was this small bronze imitative semis, purchased from Shanna Schmidt Numismatics(@ShannaS on CoinTalk), another dealer from whom I had not previously purchased but with whom I had an excellent experience. I went to the show hoping to find an imitative bronze and when I saw that she had a tray with several of them I knew I wasn't leaving without one and thankfully she was more than happy to let me spend 15 minutes or so comparing the examples she had before arriving upon this one. That said, you're probably here for the coin, so on to the coin at hand. Indigenous imitations of Roman Republic coinage, Spain, Æ Semis(6.41g, 21mm). 150-100 B.C., Spanish mint. Laureate head of Saturn right, S behind/Prow of galley right; above, S; below, ROMA. Rippolès-Witschonke group C, dies O28 R25 This semis may at first glance look similar to a Roman Saturn/Prow semis, but it was not produced in Rome or even Italy. This style is only ever found in Spain and was almost certainly produced locally. The chronology, purpose and parties responsible for minting these semisses and other bronzes which imitated Roman types have long been discussed by Republican numismatists and even Crawford himself published a study of them but for many, myself included, they have remained a difficult area because of how little information was available. Thankfully in 2015 this changed dramatically when a paper by Pere P. Ripollès and the late Richard Witschonke was published which built upon existing literature combined with coins from various public and private collections and those in published hoards to perform a die study and analysis of these types. Rather than summarize their work here, I will discuss how this coin fits into the picture that Ripollès and Witschonke have painted and direct interested readers to read the paper in its entirety at this link. It requires you to login but it's free and you can use Facebook if you have one to avoid creating yet another separate login. This particular coin fits into Ripollès-Witschonke group C, which included the largest number of recorded examples in their study and the second largest number of known dies. This coin was minted with obverse die 28 and reverse die 25, a die pairing not recorded in the paper but with such a large die sequence, not a surprising find either. At least 3 examples with this reverse die and many with other dies linked to it were in the Mengibar hoard, found in the Andalucía region in Southern Spain, and several examples from the RBW collection of similar style or even linked dies are reportedly of Andalucían provenance. This seems to suggest it was likely minted in the province of Hispania Ulterior, though it is of course hard to say for sure. Modern Andalucia and ancient Hispania Ulterior and Citerior: As far as dating, the authors suggest this particular group was minted circa 150-100 B.C.. This is based on the group's heavier weight standard and hoard evidence that the latest Spanish imitations, minted on a much lower weight standard, were minted circa 80 B.C. and had been in circulation for a few years by the time of the Sertorian conflict. This leaves one last major question: why were these coins minted? In Rome, bronze coins represented small change as opposed to the larger denominations minted in precious metals. It is generally assumed that these were minted to fit a similar role as many local mints were producing bronzes in Spain at the time(most not copying Roman designs) suggesting they were attempting to fill a great need for small change. The exact reason for the selection of Roman designs is not known, but I think it reasonable to assume that as Rome was the dominant power in the area, the easiest answer to the question "what does money look like" was "Roman money" for the people who minted these. As always, feel free to post anything relevant!
I bought this one from a junk box many years ago, and it has sat in my collection while I totally failed to gather any information about it. Now maybe I can! Thanks!
A junk box? I'm envious. That's a very nice example of one of the later types, way better than most of the ones I've seen. I did a quick glance at the plates in that paper and think your dies are in there but if not there are some very similar examples.
I have one from a mixed lot bought in the first months of collecting. It was unidentified and I put it aside thinking it was modern/fake because of the style (and the harsh cleaning). The attribution is from Warren Esty's site-- if I am wrong it is entirely my fault. Roman Republic anonymous and unofficial; possibly struck in Hispania c. 50-1 BCE Imitative semis; AE, 19x21 mm, 5.0 gm Obv: laureate head of Saturn right, S behind Rev: prow left, S above, "ROMA" below Ref: cf. Crawford 056/3
I am not sure if your dies are in the paper linked above or not but at first glance I would say #22 is close and is from the same engraver if not the same dies. I think yours is absolutely authentic and a nice example as well.
Nice coin and great write-up RS! I have several of the in honor of books, but not this one, thanks for sharing. Sertorius is one of my favorite Roman characters. He was banished after opposing Sulla. He lead an army based in Spain. I would like a coin attributed to him, but have not made much progress. It looks like one of mine may be close to his time.
Looks to me like @rrdenarius and I have a double die match, with #86 in the paper (obverse 65, reverse 72). (My reverse appears to have an extra couple of dots on the prow, which could be later additions to the die, but I suspect that it's an artifact of cleaning.)
Interesting post, red_spork! I find these Spanish imitations fascinating! @rrdenarius coins are great examples! @TIF has an interesting example.
LOL, where DID this Deacon-Guy come from! At first it were a few prutah, now he is DOMINATING the Coin-Game with FANTASTIC presentations and coins from all over the place! WOW! Nice job Deac!
Good write up and cool coin RS! I wish I had one of these imitiatvie semis (or any semis). Here's a not imitative coin from around the same area and around the same time.
There are a few but I can't say I've been to any. The closest thing I've been to is Parma in Louisville, which has a nice mozzarella bar and beer and wine selection.
I love the style of these coins, and I've been looking for more information on them. Thank you for the link to that paper - I look forward to reading it.
That's a beautiful graphic as always, Ray, and I like how the three coins demonstrate styles that move gradually away from quasi-Roman to completely barbarous. The lower right coin looks distinctly Celtic.
