Watch List notes:

L. Valerius Acisculus. Denarius 45, AR 3.87 g. ACISCVLVS Laureate head of Jupiter r.; behind, acisculus. All within laurel wreath. Rev. Anguipedic giant facing, holding with r. hand a thunderbolt that has pierced his side and raising l. hand. In exergue, [L•VA]LERIVS. Babelon Valeria 21. Sydenham 1003. Sear Imperatores 93. RBW –. Crawford 474/4.
Extremely rare and in unusually fine condition for one of the rarest denarii of the entire
Republican series. Struck on very fresh metal and with a wonderful iridescent tone.
Areas of weakness, otherwise good extremely fine

Ex Nomisma sale 59, 2019, 65.
This is undoubtdly one of the rarest denarii of the entire Roman Republican series. For instance it was missing, among the others, from the collections of Nicholas (Leu 17) Leo Benz, Student and his Menthor, RBW and Alba Longa (Pepe Fernandez Molina).
The main types of this extremely rare denarius refer to the myth of the Gigantomachy-a cataclysmic battle between the Olympian gods and the earth-born Giants that took place when the former established themselves as the new rulers of the cosmos. In this titanic conflict, the Giants, who were traditionally depicted with serpents for legs as a sign of their origin as sons of Gaia, were led by their king Porphyrion. According to the Roman version of the Greek myth, Porphyrion attacked Hercules and Juno and was on the point of destroying them when Jupiter inspired a desire for Juno in the Giant king. While Porphyrion was thus distracted, Jupiter took the opportunity to strike him down with a thunderbolt while Hercules shot him with an arrow. The obverse of the present coin depicts Jupiter, the slayer of Porphyrion, while the reverse illustrates the death throes of the greatest of the Giants as the thunderbolt protrudes from his side. The pick symbol that appears with the head of Jupiter on the obverse is a punning reference to the cognomen of the moneyer. The Latin word for "pick" was acisculus. These remarkable types appeared only briefly on this issue of L. Valerius Asciculus, which has led David Sear to suggest that they may have been interpreted (perhaps rightly) as an allegory for Julius Caesar's intention to overthrow the old order in which the Senate was supreme and establish himself as a Jupiter on earth to rule the Roman world as king. It is well known that Caesar's intimations of kingship and divinity played an important role in pushing the cabal of senatorial Liberators to murder him on 15 March 44 BC and these coin types, which seem to have been quickly replaced, may have been a contributing factor.