Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction X 27 September 2015
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Roman Republic Æ Currency Bar. Rome, circa 280-250 BC. Bull walking to right / Bull walking to left. RRC 5/1; HNItaly 257; ICC 15; Haeberlin p. 143-4, 1-5, pl. 57, 1-3, pl. 59, 1, pl. 93. 862g, 156mm x 91mm, 12h.
Very Fine, corner cut off. Very Rare, only six complete examples recorded, only one of which is in private hands.
From an old English collection, attested as being outside of Italy since before 19 January 2011.
Amongst the first cast bronze coins issued at Rome from about 280 are the lead-rich bronze quadrilateral currency bars which cannot readily be tied into the currency of the period, but which do occasionally bear the legend ROMANOM. In form they are reminiscent of the earlier 'ramo secco', herringbone and associated bars, but they have never been found in the same context. These bars may be seen not as coins but as ingots probably produced for the distribution of war booty at the time of the Pyrrhic and First Punic War (275-241). The weights for complete specimens range from about 1642 to 1746 grams, which would indicate that they were intended to be 5-as pieces (quincusses), based on a Roman libra of about 324 grams. They are usually found in fragments, indicating that they circulated as bullion with cast coins throughout central Italy.
The Romans of later times lacked a coherent history for their early coinage, the surviving literary tradition on the early bronze currency being composed of relentlessly modernising Roman accounts. These accounts are inclined to invent historical as well as monetary events, and characteristically make the beginning of coinage respectably antique and Roman by associating it with the reigns of the semi-mythical kings Numa Pompilius (traditional date, 715-673) and Servius Tullius (traditional date, 578-535). The famous statement of Pliny the Elder in the 1st century AD explicitly states that: 'Servius rex primus signavit aes. Antea rudi usos Romae Timaeus tradit. Signatum est nota pecudum, unde et pecunia appellata' (king Servius was the first to mark bronze; Timaeus relates that previously they used raw metal at Rome. It was marked with the image of animals from which pecunia also was supposed to draw its name), (HN 33.13.43). This statement was confirmed by Cassiodorus as late as the 6th century AD: 'monetae curam habere praecipimus, quam Servius rex in aere primum impressisse perhibetur' (we advise you to take care of money, which king Servius is held to have first marked in bronze), (Variae 7.32.4.).
Pecunia: 'money or wealth' from pecus 'livestock' (Varro, Ling 5.92). Modern philologists believe that the word may be connected to the Indo-European word *peku 'movable personal property' and the Latin peculium 'private property, savings.'
Very Fine, corner cut off. Very Rare, only six complete examples recorded, only one of which is in private hands.
From an old English collection, attested as being outside of Italy since before 19 January 2011.
Amongst the first cast bronze coins issued at Rome from about 280 are the lead-rich bronze quadrilateral currency bars which cannot readily be tied into the currency of the period, but which do occasionally bear the legend ROMANOM. In form they are reminiscent of the earlier 'ramo secco', herringbone and associated bars, but they have never been found in the same context. These bars may be seen not as coins but as ingots probably produced for the distribution of war booty at the time of the Pyrrhic and First Punic War (275-241). The weights for complete specimens range from about 1642 to 1746 grams, which would indicate that they were intended to be 5-as pieces (quincusses), based on a Roman libra of about 324 grams. They are usually found in fragments, indicating that they circulated as bullion with cast coins throughout central Italy.
The Romans of later times lacked a coherent history for their early coinage, the surviving literary tradition on the early bronze currency being composed of relentlessly modernising Roman accounts. These accounts are inclined to invent historical as well as monetary events, and characteristically make the beginning of coinage respectably antique and Roman by associating it with the reigns of the semi-mythical kings Numa Pompilius (traditional date, 715-673) and Servius Tullius (traditional date, 578-535). The famous statement of Pliny the Elder in the 1st century AD explicitly states that: 'Servius rex primus signavit aes. Antea rudi usos Romae Timaeus tradit. Signatum est nota pecudum, unde et pecunia appellata' (king Servius was the first to mark bronze; Timaeus relates that previously they used raw metal at Rome. It was marked with the image of animals from which pecunia also was supposed to draw its name), (HN 33.13.43). This statement was confirmed by Cassiodorus as late as the 6th century AD: 'monetae curam habere praecipimus, quam Servius rex in aere primum impressisse perhibetur' (we advise you to take care of money, which king Servius is held to have first marked in bronze), (Variae 7.32.4.).
Pecunia: 'money or wealth' from pecus 'livestock' (Varro, Ling 5.92). Modern philologists believe that the word may be connected to the Indo-European word *peku 'movable personal property' and the Latin peculium 'private property, savings.'