Denarius: A Roman Republican oddity - Quadrans with Mercury

Mercury / Prow RR Quadrans

Crawford 97/13d, 211-208 BC

Roman Republic, anonymous AE Quadrans, Luceria, ca. 211-208 BC.

Obv - Head of Mercury on the right, above three dots °°°, below L. (I am not sure about the L below Mercury. I will look closer when I have the coin in hand.) The L seems out of place according to BMCRR. Grueber notes that the form of L changes from archaic to our current one in his 3^rd period, 196 – 173 BC. The examples I have found on line have archaic Ls. Mine does not look to be archaic. I there are two different busts of Mercury and dot locations. The coins with two dots to the left of Mercury’s hat wing have a longer, Jimmy Durantee style, nose. My coin has two dots to the right and a shorter, but still Roman, nose.

Rev – Prow of Roman warship facing right, above ROMA with archaic A, In Ex – three dots °°°

Weight = 10.51 grams

Diameter = 23.3 mm

Attributions:

Cr. 97 / 5c or 13d, have similar descriptions with lower weight for 13. I think mine is a 13.

BMCRR – Italy _ _ , Grueber assignes no number to the Hercules / prow coin shown between Italy #6 & Italy #7. There is no description in the main text for a Quadrans with Mercury, but one is mentioned in the notes. Grueber II pg 147 in footnote 3: “D’Ailly (Mon rom, pl. civ., nos. 4, 5) figures two quadrantes with the obverse type of the sextans, i.e. bust of Mercury…. which must be due to a blunder on the part of the die engraver. “

Syd - 127

RBW – 401

Garrucci – pg. 69, Table LXXXI #3, see note 1 below.

Note 1:

In Italian:

Nel Kirch.

Bronzo coi tipi del sestante romano dato per quadrante: sotto al collo del Mercurio v'e un L, sopra vi sono i tre blobetti; e nel riverso ROMA e vi si pipetone i tre globetti. Il suo peso e di gr. 10. L'ha dato anche il bar. d'Ailly (Recherches, pl. CIV, 4, 5), e l'ebbe nella sua collezione il Lovatti. Lucera si e servita del sestante romano elevandolo al balore di tre calchi deboli (cf. Muler, Anc. Aft. vol I. Pag. 123),

Translated to English on line:

In the Kirch.

Bronze with the types of the Roman sextans given for quadrans: under the neck of Mercury there is an L, above are the three dots; and on the reverse is a prow right, above ROMA and in ex – three dots. Its weight is gr. 10. The bar also gave it. d'Ailly (Recherches, pl. CIV, 4, 5), and had it in his collection Lovatti. Lucera used the Roman sextant raising it to the height of three weak casts (cf. Muler, Anc. Aft. Vol. Pag. 123),