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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;red_spork, post: 8004939, member: 74282&quot;]In the recent Aureo &amp; Calico auction I added yet another victoriatus to my collection, special for a couple of reasons. It has an interesting symbol and a fantastic provenance that was not listed in the sale, but I&#039;ll save the provenance discussion for the end. This victoriatus has a symbol that has traditionally been called a &quot;knife&quot;, and even today most sellers call the coins of this and the related Crawford 109 series a &quot;knife&quot;. While it does look like a bladed implement, but as <a href="https://www.academia.edu/2654847/RRC_109_and_120_You_call_that_a_knife?fbclid=IwAR1EAtEcTKTL3ydW2XTDHzekxcvZJc1Hc6ycxXKGgWtKKMx9A4_rlP_Lgmo" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.academia.edu/2654847/RRC_109_and_120_You_call_that_a_knife?fbclid=IwAR1EAtEcTKTL3ydW2XTDHzekxcvZJc1Hc6ycxXKGgWtKKMx9A4_rlP_Lgmo" rel="nofollow">Ted Poulton points out</a>, this is in fact, a Celtiberian sword known as a falcata, a weapon which the Romans would no doubt have encountered during the Spanish campaigns of the Second Punic War. Ted&#039;s paper is short and worth reading, so I will not restate his entire &quot;falcata&quot; discussion here, but I will share one illustration from it because it gives a good idea of the size of a falcata and honestly, it&#039;s probably the best illustration I have seen in any numismatic paper.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1388691[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>As far as the context of the minting of this coin, it is actually the latest victoriatus in my collection. This type was struck circa 206-195 BC, during the period where the Second Punic War was winding down or possibly even after the war. Even with the war winding down, Rome still had large numbers of troops in the field, some of which were in areas the denarius system hadn&#039;t really taken hold such as Gaul and Spain. As such, they continued minting victoriati here and there, though not anywhere near the massive numbers minted during earlier in the war. During this period, Rome also minted victoriati with sow, dog, thunderbolt, meta and staff on obverse(as opposed to the wartime staff reverse victoriati) but this is the only one with a symbol with an identity that isn&#039;t so obvious.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1388688[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Roman Republic AR Victoriatus(2.90g). Anonymous, second Falcata series, 206-195 B.C., Rome mint. Laureate head of Jupiter right; border of dots / Victory standing right, crowning trophy; falcata between. In exergue, ROMA. Line border. Crawford 120/1</p><p>Ex Aureo &amp; Calico 375, 20 October 2021, lot 111, ex Joseph Martini Collection, Rodolfo Ratto Lugano 24 February 1930, lot 151</p><p><br /></p><p>This coin comes from the 24 February 1930 Rodolfo Ratto Lugano sale of the Joseph(also known as Giuseppe) Martini collection. Martini was a bookdealer from Lucca, Italy who moved to New York in 1901, perhaps to explore new markets, but also because he had been caught attempting to sell stolen books, some of which he&#039;d covered the shelfmarks on with his own person ex-libris in an attempt to hide that they&#039;d been stolen from public libraries. In New York it seems that Martini developed an excellent reputation(or perhaps got so good at stealing that he never got caught, we may never know) and by 1912 had published his first American catalog and was selling books and manuscripts to a number of high profile clients. In 1924, Martini closed up shop in New York and moved to Florence for a few years and then later to Lugano where he lived until his death in 1944. It&#039;s thought that he may have left Italy this second time because he was in trouble once again, not for stealing, but instead for his anti-fascist leanings.</p><p><br /></p><p>Martini&#039;s Roman Republic collection spanned the entire extent of the coinage, from early aes grave issues to wonderful struck prow bronzes to Imperatorial rarities like the denarii of Cornuficius. In addition to the Ratto sale from which this coin came, some of Martini&#039;s coins were sold in Michele Baranowsky&#039;s 25 February 1931 sale, along with the collection of Valerio Traverso of Genoa. Below I&#039;ve attached a picture of Martini along with my provenance scans in a new format I&#039;m trying out. Interestingly, if you check out the text you&#039;ll notice that whoever previously owned the copy of the Martini sale that I have access to was apparently interested in this coin, as it&#039;s been marked to the left in the text.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1388709[/ATTACH]</p><p>Credit: Archivio Diocesano de Lucca</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1388708[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>As always, feel free to post anything relevant[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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