Roman Republic - rarely seen coins

Sicilian coinage of all eras is generally regarded as entirely Greek - the post-Roman conquest coinage still maintains its Greek legends and looks quite unlike Italian style coinage during the Roman Republic, which has an ordered system of As through Uncia complete with value marks (dots) and Latin legends just like Roman coins. So isn't it intriguing how extraordinarily ROMAN these coins from Panormus appear - both have the traditional Roman Janus obverse As type; one coin has a wreath for reverse whilst the other has the wolf and twins, that iconic symbol of the city of Rome. The wolf and twins type is well known from its appearance on just two Roman coins, a didrachm of the early 3rd century BC, and small bronze types of the 3rd century AD, 550 years later, at the time Constantine was moving the capital to Constantinople. That these wonderfully Roman style provincial coins do not appear in RPC (Roman Provincial Coinage) adds weight to my view that RPC Volume Zero - dealing with the period prior to 49 BC - is both needed and inevitable.

My books: http://hometown.aol.co.uk/ahala/index.html

photos: 1. Kevin Barry; 2. Ancient Imports

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