I bought a quartuncial as last week, ex RBW, and want to comment on it, and on related issues. The coin is illustrated below: 23 mm and 6.48 grams:
Roberto
Russo says this about it:
This
rare reduced as, that poses objective problems regarding the trusted and intrinsic value of the
Republican bronze, is to be attributed to the CA series according to the
style. A significant and decisive study on
Republican bronze coinage, edited by Roberto
Russo and Andrew Mc Cabe, will be published in the near future. Of the highest
rarity, apparently only the second specimen know. Dark
patina.
About very fine. Ex NAC 61 (
RBW Collection), lot 442.
It is undoubtedly of the same engraving
style as Canusium
asses, yet one quarter of the
weight, compare here a
Crawford RRC 100/1 (variety) from Canusium which weighs 28.5 grams, over four times heavier:
Note the very broad
head, the horizontal value mark above, the hair and facial expressions, the nature of the prow, its short bulbous prowstem, the raised structure on the decks, not angled as in Luceria or Sicilian issues but relatively flat on top, the form of lettering, the position of the value mark I between prowstem and deck structure, slightly angled. Same
mint, same die engraver.
There are no light
weight asses recorded by
Crawford for Canusium; as reported by Roberto
Russo.
Light
weight asses per se and not so
rare. I have owned two before. But invariably they weigh between two and three grams, and do not have any great
affinity to the styles of
Crawford 97, L, or
Crawford 99, P. Most are probably imitations. My new coin is not. Of the
rare official
style coins, several come in the
style of the P series,
Crawford 99, and several in the
style of the CA series,
Crawford 100, as
per my new coin. The general 'bucket' into which these coins are placed,
Crawford 97/28, may not exist as an official
type but see discussion on d'Ailly 3549 below. Furthermore the record and photos in
RRC are muddled, as follows. Here is a few sentences written by me in
Essays Russo:
The record of the
types RRC 97/28 and
RRC 99/10 requires correction. Close examination of the cited coins in
Paris shows the following.
Paris A3232 = d’Ailly pl.CVI,1 = a cited coin in the first edition of
RRC for
RRC 97/28 is a full-sized
RRC 97/22a with L below the prow, on a short, thin
flan, and thus is not a relevant coin.
Paris A1339 = d’Ailly pl.LXV,5 = a cited coin for 97/28, is an
imitative with retrograde
legend and no
mintmark, and thus is not a relevant coin.
Paris A3234 = d’Ailly pl.CVI,2 = the illustrated coin for
RRC 97/28, and is evidently an
overstrike, has no
obverse mintmark (contra the d’Ailly plate that shows an
obverse L) but may have a letter P before the prow.
Paris A3549 = d’Ailly pl.CIX,5 = the cited and illustrated specimen for
RRC 99/10, has no
reverse mintmark (contra the d’Ailly plate that shows a
reverse P) but may have a letter L below the
obverse head. Thus d’Ailly in Monnaie Romaine switched the
mintmark location on the illustrated A3234 and A3549, and
Crawford in
RRC perpetuated this switch. Other than on A3234 (apparent
reverse P) and A3549 (apparent
obverse L). I have seen no lightweight coins with visible
mintmarks.
Here are three
Paris coins under discussion:
Paris d’Ailly 3232. Merely an ordinary 97/22a on a short thin
flan:
(second coin illustrated below)
Paris d'Ailly 3234. Plate coin for 97/28 in
Crawford but if anything there is a P before the prow, not an L, however I suspect there is no
mintmark at all, as none have been seen on other coins. The
style anyway closely resembles my new coin so I believe it to be a Canusium issue. It is an
overstrike hence the vertical object in the middle of the
reverse prow:
(third coin illustrated below)
Paris d'Ailly 3549. Plate coin for 99/10 in
Crawford, possibly a misread due to the scratch before the prow but perhaps there is an L below the
head, more likely nothing. This with its upward slanting deck structure, and no horizontal
bar above Janus'
head vaguely resembles the
Crawford 97 L series
style so is as close as I've come to seeing a real Cr.97/28:
Compare this
Russo collection Crawford 99/10. In this case this is really 99/10, without mistake, as the upward facing gaze is unmistakeable:
Weight 7.65 grams
Then compare a regular P series as for the same
style:
weight 28.87 grams.
The vast majority of lightweight
asses are I assume imitations, and often have the prow is rather like a stick insect and bear no specific
affinity to any of the L, P or CA styles. These are probably much later.
None appear in the
hoard record, except the following record of site finds that I published in
Essays Russo:
A large group of worn bronzes with similar patinas offered online in recent years by a Puglia based source included three of this [anonymous struck bronze related to Luceria and Canusium] group F1 (one
Semis and two Sextantes with the regular
reverse), in addition to 23 other bronzes of Luceria (L, P, CA), and miscellaneous other
Roman Republican bronzes I am indebted to Edward Blume-Poulton for sharing with me
his observations of these coins. In addition to the three coins of this group F1, also observed were: 1
RRC 43/6
Semuncia, 1
RRC 97/5d Mercury
head Quadrans with oo-o value mark layout, 1
RRC 97/6
Sextans, 2
RRC 97/19 Quadrantes, 1 anonymous P
style Triens (see group F2, this essay), 4 anonymous P
style Sextantes (likewise), 4
RRC 100/3 CA Trientes, all overstrikes, 1
RRC 100/5
Sextans, 1
RRC 100/6a
Uncia, 3
RRC 97/28 lightweight
Asses in the
style of the CA coinage, 3
RRC 97/28 lightweight
Asses of unofficial
style, 1 Luceria civic
Triens HN Italy 679. Other bronzes seen included 1
RRC 84/5
ROMA Sextans (assigned to
Apulia), several Sicilian second Punic war bronzes, one
Semis of Sardinia
RRC 65/3, as well as large numbers of miscellaneous later
Rome mint bronzes from the early second century BC. All coins were heavily worn. Whilst the
bulk of the bronzes were second century BC, amongst the second Punic war era coins those of Luceria and related issues clearly predominate, a striking observation considering their general
rarity in the pool of
Roman Republican bronzes.
I do not know the circumstances for the issue of these coins, but I presume that the official pieces come after the latest full
weight asses of P and CA, perhaps about 210-209 BC and coincident with the light
weight fractions then being minted as overstrikes in Sardinia and other areas, but these are very much lighter
still and cannot have successfully circulated long at their
face value. It is curious that my new coin and some others are found worn. I can only imagine that that circulated as small change after the second Punic war. Most of the imitations are not worn.
To conclude:
- No lightweight
asses with
mintmarks are known with certainty to exist, and probably none were ever made.
-
Crawford 97/28 L lightweight as, in official
style is only known by me from the uncertain d'Ailly
Paris 3549. The vast majority sold in trade are either imitations or P or CA
types.
-
Crawford 99/10 P lightweight as clearly exists, c.f. the
Russo coin above.
-
Crawford 100 CA light as clearly exists, cf my new coin, but is not listed in
RRC.
- Both these official
style coins are very
rare, and typically weigh 5 to 8 grams.
- The majority of lightweight
asses seen in trade cannot be associated with any of
Crawford 97, 99 or 100 and typically weigh 2 to 4 grams. They are imitations.
Apart from data and photos of about 40 such coins, which show a clear split between the imitations
ans the likely official coins and which back up these conclusions, this is as much as I've discovered by now. I intend to publish on this.
Andrew McCabe