A Small Janus Head and Prow Right Bronze Coin

A Small Janus Head and Prow Right Bronze Coin

RR As?; Cr 97, 99, 100… Something Else?

When I buy a coin on line, I take the seller’s pictures to record the piece in my collection. This coin from Numismatica Tintinna’s e-Auction 70 is not easy for me to attribute. I used Google Translate to convert Italian to English, did a bit of reading and wrote the description that follows. My best guess is the coin is a Cr 100/1b, or something close. The coin is low weight (3.37 grams), has a distinctive Janus head, a different (close to 90 degree) angle for the right facing prow and visible sprews on opposite sides. The coin has a well worn reverse, but it looks like ROMA was spelled backwards and the A is on the left side. I will show some Cr 100's first and then other bronze coins that look a bit like my coin. Comments from others would be appreciated.

Repubblica Romana - 206-195 a.C. Asse anonimo di peso ridotto. Canosa?. D/ Testa di Giano. R/ Prora nave. Peso 3,37 gr. Diametro 18,6 mm. BB/qBB. Patina verde. R.

Roman Republic - 206-195 BC. 

Anonymous As of reduced weight.

Mint - Canosa ?

Obv - Head of Janus

Rev – Prow of Roman war ship right, letter below left end of prow could be R or A, I think it looks like A.

Weight 3.37 gr.

Size: 17.2 mm, sprew to sprew; 18.5 mm dia. & 2.0 mm thick

Condition:

·         Obv – VF

·         Rev – aG

·         Brown patina (I am slightly color blind so might not see the green Massamo mentions.)

·         Strike - weak strike due to thin flan                    

·         Flan flaws - casting sprews visable, thin flan due to low weight            

·         Style - good style on obv, but mint mark, if any, is missing                    

·         Damage - reverse design mostly missing due to corrosion or cleaning    

·         Centering – good, but small size / low weight may have forced some features off flan

Cr 100/1b (if Canusa is correct), R

BMCRR Italy 265 (31 grams)

Numismatica Tintinna - eAuct 70; Lot 116; 2/20/2018

Some observations of this coin: 

bronze coin
1.  low weight, 3.37 grams
2.  thin flan, dia = 18.6 mm
3.  casting sprews are visible at 12 and 6
Janus head obv
1.  short neck

2.  two faces are almost square

3.  flat arc below neck, probably not mark of value....

4.  beard and hair are curly, like cotton bolls

5.  might have CA over heads, but could be my imagination!

6.  Thin flan, part of faces are level with field

Reverse
1.    Prow Right, prow is at a 95^o angle to the water in front of the ship. Note most RR coins have a smaller angle.

2.  Mark of value, I, above.

3.  in ex – The letter A is on left side of coin. I do not see other letters. There are some dots where the tops of letters should be found. There are a few examples of RR bronze coins and imitative RR bronze coins with ROMA reversed.

           

Attribution –

It is hard to find a match for this coin in most of my books on Roman Republican coins. The vendor suggested Canosa (Canusium). This looks like a good choice, but Crawford’s weight standard is 27 g with an average 23 g for 13 know coins at the time the book was published in 1974. Crawford 97 and 99 have similar designs and Cr 97 has a low weight example, 7 g. The coin is missing the letters CA that are on Crawford 100/1a, 1b or 1c. Crawford notes these bronze coins are not common.

I found 27 examples of Cr 100/1 on line and in books. Some did not have CA for positive ID. The coins ranged 1.7 grams to 25.4 grams. Most of the coins are near the weight listed by Crawford. The light weight examples do not have the letters CA.

  

R Witschonke wrote about RR coins not in Crawford: Some Unpublished Roman Republican Coins in Essays in Honour of Roberto Russo in 2013. He shows two “full sized” coins from Canusium (one without CA on the reverse and one without CA on the obverse and reverse). A reduced size, 6.48 gram, coin without CA on the obverse or reverse was also shown. These coins were sold as part of the RBW Collection _{(rbw 1 - 5)} . Since then several coins of less than 10 grams have been offered in auctions. Some of the low weight asses are late Republican issues. See the coins of D. Junius L.f. Silanus, Cr 337/5, 91 BC; below. Most of the low weight asses have been attributed to Canusium: Cr 98, L; Cr 99, P and Cr 100, CA. Most of these low weight coins do not have the letters L, P or CA.

Cr-100/1_, CA examples. Of the 5 RBW coins, only #5 is close on weight.

 RBW-1; 16.7 g

 RBW-2; 21.8 g

 RBW-3; 25.4 g

 RBW-4; 19.57 g

 RBW-5; 6.48 g

  Art Ast; 1.69, note the reversed ROMA!

 CNG 364; 14.94 g 

 CNG 316; 11.27 g

  Art Ast e11; 10.93 g

Crawford 97/28, as

 HD Rauch; 2.15 g

 London Anc C; 3.27 g

 Roma; 2.34 g

 NAC; 3.85 g

 Roma; 2.78 g

The ANS museum on line has a Cr 97/28 that weighs 1.95 g, but no pic.

Crawford 97/?; uncia & sextans; these coins have similar right facing prows

 NAC; 3.08 g

 NAC; 6.04 g

Crawford 99

 NAC92; 4.72 g

 BFA; 3.06 g

SICILY, Panormos. Roman protectorate. After 241 BC

 

CNG e199; 4.5 g; 

note the Janus head, coin weight and visable sprews at 12 & 6 are similar to my coin.

AES Signatum with marks - Ramo Secco and Punched

I added several pieces of cast bronze to my collection this year. The bars with marks are especially interesting. Pictured below are my pieces and some I found on line or in books. I will note where the pieces are not mine.

the mark on this piece is an X with a circle at the center and dots at the ends

a side view of the bar shows a thick casting seam

The seller's pics.

Central Italy AES Signatum (bronze currency bar) with punched inscriptions: X and C (crescent)

Late 4^th to early 3^rd century BC per seller, dating per T&V page 16. Vecchi in ICC dates counter-stamped aes rude and cast bars 7^th to 3^rd century BC. “Interesting bronze lumps countermarked with a cross and crescent, probably symbolizing the sun and moon..”

Fragment of an originally rectangular bronze bar, decoration indeterminate. The full bar was 68mm wide and part of the bar is this width. The small part is only 36mm wide. Length is 27 to 67 mm and thickness is 30 mm. The edge seams on one side is 15mm (or about 50% of the thickness) and only 6mm (20%) on the other side.  

Condition: Green patina, fragmentary, 597 grams

 Aes Signatum Fragment with Symbol

Roman Republic, 3rd century BC (vendor's date). The vendor did not suggest a mint, but placed the piece in his RR section. Per Vecchi, ICC, I say Central Italy from the 7th to 3rd century BC.

Aes Signatum fragment with incuse symbol, C or crescent moon

22.39 grams

25.29 X 23.36 X 6.5 mm

I have three punched aes rude from previous years. The first pic shows the pieces on G. Garrucci, Le Lemonete Del'Italia Antica; Table LXVII.

Roman Republic AES Signatum fragment with symbol, +

Third century BC (seller's date)

48.6 grams

RR

This piece is more irregular than the two pieces above.

Repubblica Romana. III sec. a.C. Aes Signatum. Frammento con simbolo Astro. Peso 48,60 gr. RR.

  Pages from some of my books showing symbols.

 T&V, Plate 2; see symbol on piece third row from top and 2nd from right.

Vecchi, ICC has several pieces in in Table 1. 

Other examples I have seen on line:

piece from auction by Agora

piece from auction by Agora

Aes Rude shown on CoinTalk by ancientcoinguru 

piece from auction by Elsen

piece from auction by Roma

piece from auction by Roma

piece from auction by Roma

Ramo Secco Fragment

Ramo Secco. AE Ingot (Fragment) Northern or Central Italy, c. 4.-3. Century. v. Border piece of a bar with branch pattern. I have several pieces of RS bar pieces and this one has the best pattern. 

dimensions -  51 mm x 44 mm x 30 mm

255 grams 

Thurlow / Vecchi AS 1

A drawing titled Ramo Secco, or dry branches.

my other RS bars

The bar on the right is "unmarked", and was purchased this year also.

AES SIGNATUM. Fragment of an originally rectangular bronze bar, decoration indeterminate.

L = 25 mm

W = 50 mm

T = 18 mm

Wt. = 220g

Thurlow-Vecchi  Pg.16.