Q. Fufius
Calenus & Mucius Cordus
Sear 338,
Fufia 1,
Crawford 403/1
This one was supposed to commemorate the
peace following the
Social War and shows
Italia and
Roma on the
reverse. The
obverse has
jugate heads of Honos and
Virtus. What makes it special to me is that all four figures were labeled On the
obverse we have HO and a
ligature of
VIRT. On the
reverse this specimen clips the I but shows the
ligate TAL while the other
side has RO. I find it interesting that each
side used one
ligate form of 4 letters and a plain version with two letters. Perhaps the O was a problem to that cutter in designing a
ligate version?
When I get a new coin I tend to look it up in various references both on paper and online. That pointed out that this is a rather more worn example than it might first seem. Compared to the many coins with published photographs this shows the curls on Honos smoothed over by wear. Some designs hold up better to wear than others and these high curls really protect the rest of the
obverse design. The seller called it "
Choice EF" which is ridiculous but I'm
still willing to call it VF.
The photo is a test using a gray background. I have always used black backgrounds and recently posted my trials using white. This is a compromise. I know that many of you believe that the background should be left however it happens to fall but I want all my coins on one background. The problem is which one. The coin is my offering as "..... of the day" and, perhaps I should have titled this "Gray of the day". I wonder how I feel about it after I shoot a few more tests?