Roman Republican Coins
289 BC - 30 BC

The Normal Republican Period 289 - 100 BC


to Hellenistic Era
Rome Imperatorial Era
Back to Home

Aes Grave: Roma Head
rev: Wheel of 6 spokes
Cast bronze As
dia ~-- mm, wt ~ 276.94 g
269 - 240 B.C.E.
Gorny & Mosch auction 257, 2018, lot# 632
Gorny & Mosch auction 215, 2013, lot# 3

one of the earlier Aes Grave types.

 "As for our case, that is the denarius with the wheel symbol on the R/, for the sake of completeness we must remember that this appears in the coinage of Etruria, Luceria and Massalia, but it is also known as the wheel is a purely Roman symbol related to the military sphere, the road system and roads: with caution we could assume the destination of this denarius to exceptional expenses for the construction of one or more viae publicae between the end of the third and the first half of the second century BC."
-- from bertolamifineart

Of course this isn't a denarius but the research behind the Roman wheel design is pertinent.

Aes Grave: Janus Head /Galley Prow
semi-libral Cast bronze As
dia ~63 mm, wt ~ 258 g
225 - 217 B.C.E.
Artemide Aste auction 37,
July 11-12,   2012, lot# 102

This is a large leaded bronze coin which was CAST by the Roman Republic just before the 2nd Punic War. They are known as Aes Grave or Heavy Bronze. A Roman pound was originally 273 g and this piece represents a reduction in weight from that. This is the Vecchi (Italian Cast Coinage, 1979, Bradbury K. Thurlow & Italo G. Vecchi, Hardcover) type 51, Janus Head / Prow of Galley with horizontal bar (mark of denomination) obverse.

This is the most common type of Cast Aes Grave with a known population of 1198 pcs (as of 1979) with a further ~600 similar pcs but without the bars of denomination. Recorded weight range for these is 240.3-290 g*

For more info on the weights of these see Historia Numorum  On-Line. For knowledge of these pieces I strongly recommend the "Italian Cast Coinage" book by Thurlow and Vecchi, 1979. It illustrates the different types, weights, when they were made, and lists a table of known specimens thereby giving some guide to relative rarity.

 --------------

Silver Quadrigatus
Janus Head ca 225 B.C.
 (Numismatic Fine Arts, auction XX, lot# 5, 1989 		wt = 6.685 g These were struck to the Greek standard of a didrachm before the advent of the denarius.

Tarpia buried by shields

a denarius serratus

There is an extremely good article about the Serratii also called the Denarius Serratus, written by Andrea Pancotti and Patrizia Calabria of Bertolami.

The link is gone from their site but not before I saved it in pdf here:

DENARII SERRATA OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC

to Hellenistic Era
Rome Imperatorial Era
Back to Home