Sunday, January 29, 2017

Another Weight on a Roman Republican Coin, C.PISO.L.F.FRVGI Cr 408/1, 67 BC

C.PISO.L.F.FRVGI

Cr 408/1, 67 BC

I bought this coin on line: Asta Numismatica 37E by Artemide Aste. I was interested in some cast bronze pieces, and won one of them that I will post later. I like Roman Republican coins and was only partially watching the auction when this coin appeared on the screen. I am a sucker for cast bronze pieces. I especially like plumb bobs, see my post on March 1, 2015. The symbol looked a lot like a Roman level, see pic below thanks to Plumb Bob Wolf (http://www.plumbbob.de/). I did not have much time to bid on the coin, so I passed on discretion  and made a couple of bids. The other guy (I suppose it could have been a gal) stopped bidding and I won!!! I was not sure of the symbol, but it is a bit like the level. Charles Hersh wrote an excellent article on this coin series: Coinage of C. Calburnius Piso L. F. Frugi, in Numismatic Chronicles 1976. In that article he identifies the symbol as a pendulum. 

I modified the seller's description and the one by Hersh - 

Roman Republican Denarius, 67 BC, C. Calpurnius L.f. Frugi. AR. 
Obv. Head of Apollo right, hair bound with fillet (see info below on fillet); behind, anchor (per vendor) or pendelum (Hersh) or level (Gene). 
Rev. Horseman galloping right, holding palm branch; below, C PISO L F FRV/ uncertain symbol silphium seed.
Cr. 408/1B.
BMCRR – Rome 3654 to 3815
RSC – Calpurnia 24 - 29
Syd. 851/H.
Cf. Banti 268/4. 
C A Hersh, Coinage of C. Calburnius Piso L. F. Frugi, Numismatic Chronicles 1976 - #214; O-228, Apollo head wearing a taenia headband, right, behind die mark - pendelum; R-2044, rider wearing no hat, carries palm branch, below, legend – C.PISO.L.F.FRV, in ex – control mark – silphium seed.


My example of a bronze weight that could have been used on a Roman level.

Silphium seed on Cyrene coin thanks to Wikilinks.

I do not know how many folks know what a fillet is, but I had to google the term and found two definitions. The one the fits the coin is:

Best Selling Baby Taenia Bowknot Head Wear, from DHGate.com


The one that is probably not right, but looks right is:
The vet web site  http://www.practicalpetvet.com/2012/01/ thinks a Taenia is a tape worm.