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Author Topic: Quartuncial Asses, Luceria 97/28, 99/10 and Canusium  (Read 1032 times)

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Offline Andrew McCabe

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Quartuncial Asses, Luceria 97/28, 99/10 and Canusium
« on: April 12, 2014, 11:42:25 am »
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

Offline Joe Sermarini

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Re: Quartuncial Asses, Luceria 97/28, 99/10 and Canusium
« Reply #1 on: October 15, 2017, 08:59:41 am »
Please upload photos to the discussion board to prevent broken image links.
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