I recently picked up the following staff and club series
victoriatus, an extremely
rare type that was high on my want list due but that I doubted I'd ever be able to add on my
budget. Luckily for me, it was misidentified by its previous owner, likely due to the fact that whoever originally cleaned it only partially cleaned it and
had left much of the detail obscured by thick encrustations. I sent it off to be professionally cleaned and
restored and got it back only a few days ago and am excited to finally be able to share it.
Find evidence suggests that the "staff and club" series(which this coin is a
part of, though only the bronzes include the club symbol) was struck In Central
Italy during the Second Punic War. While there is not enough find evidence to determine the exact
mint location, given that the
style of these
types and the related "pentagram" issue has no clear relation with any of the other
contemporary field mints(
Sicily,
Spain,
Apulia, Sardinia)
nor the
Rome mint itself, and given that it is very likely that the duration and scope of operations in
Etruria would require some form of coinage, it seems likely to me that the traditional theory of this series being minted in
Etruria is likely correct.
Crawford even goes as far as to suggest that the "staff and club" series was struck under the general C.
Calpurnius Piso whom Livy records as being dispatched to
Etruria to put down a revolt circa 209 B.C.
Full ID:
Roman Republic AR
Victoriatus(3.07g, 18mm). Anonymous("Staff and club" series). 209-208 B.C., Etrurian
mint. Laureate
head of
Jupiter right.
Border of dots /
Victory standing right, crowning
trophy with
wreath; Staff between.
ROMA in
exergue. Line
border.
Crawford 106/1;
Sydenham 209;
RSC 24n.
