Flos, a flower, appears on coins of Aquillius Florus, a monetary triumvir of Augustus. The type of that reverse bears allusion to the cognomen. Vaillant gives it as his opinion that the flower represented on the denarius alluded to is unknown to botanists. Havercamp (in Morell, Thesaur.) contends that it is the cyanus [KUANOS - the blue corn flower]. Eckhel (|v| 143) bluntly says: "Let those look to it, who are conversant with the study."
A denarius of the Durmia family, with legend HONORI and the head of Honour for its obverse type, exhibits on the reverse the legend CAESAR AVGVSTVS, and a slow quadriga, on which is a basket with a flower in it (see above). An exactly similar type of reverse appears on gold and silver coins of Titus. Vaillant 's explanation (|ii| p 97) of this device is its reference to a triumph of that emperor 's; and that this flower, or rather bud, similar to what the goddess SPES carries in her hand, denotes the hope reposed by the senate and people of Rome in the victorious arms of Judea 's conqueror.
A flower, according to Pliny, was the symbol of Spring; and in confirmation of this, on the coins of the four seasons (by Antoninus Pius, Commodus, and others), we see the boy who personifies the Spring bearing a basket laden with flowers. See SAECULI, TEMPORUM FELICITAS, Aquilia gens.