Crawford 069/6, ROMAN REPUBLIC, Corn-ear and KA Series Sextans overstruck on Heiron II bronze

Rome. The Republic.
Corn Ear and KA Series (211-208 BCE), overstruck on bronze of Hieron II (275-215 BCE)
AE Sextans (5.87g; 20mm).
Sicilian Mint.

Obverse: (overtype) Mercury head right, wearing petastos, two pellets above; (undertype) Poseidon head left.

Reverse: (overtype) Prow right, corn-ear above, IC before, ROMA below; (undertype) Trident; dolphin on either side; IEPѠNOΣ below

Overtype References: Crawford 69/6b; Sydenham 310d.
Undertype References: SNG Copenhagen (Sicily) 844-856
Overstrike References: Crawford Table XVIII, No. 65.

Provenance: Ex Forum Ancient Coins.

During the Second Punic War, Roman military mints often overstruck war booty bronzes into Roman types. Weights of the bronze undertypes were of little consequence since the coins were fiduciary anyway; thus we often see a wide-range of weights on these overstruck coins. Module was perhaps more important for visual differentiation. Sometimes, the undertype is barely noticeable. Other times, the result is a clear melding of the devices of overtype and undertype, as on this coin. Here we clearly see Poseidon’s remaining profile from 6-9h on the obverse. The reverse shows signs of the trident base at 8h to the left of the prow. The Mercury/Prow overtype is remarkably crisp and complete. Crawford contains a table of known overstrikes in the Roman Republican series which includes the types combined on this coin.