The Numismatic Chronicle 171 Offprint - Royal Numismatic Society

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100 RICHARD SCHAEFER and ANDREW McCABE easily be distinguished from a number of other Star asses and semisses, which are artistically less competent and are of slightly lower weight standard although their weights do overlap with the bronzes of good style. The style of these other pieces, RRC 196/1 and 196/2 (Figs 3, 4), coincides with that of the other Period 2 bronze issues (for example RRC 192, 193, 194 and 195). So d’Ailly had reached the point of distinguishing two different issues of Star bronzes. Fig. 1: Period 1 as Fig. 2: Period 1 semis Fig. 3: Period 2 as Fig. 4: Period 2 semis Fractional Star bronzes are all rare except for the very common quadrantes with star before the prow. D’Ailly divides the corpus into various styles but does not propose any specifi c arrangement. However, since he notes that the star-before quadrantes are lighter and more erratically engraved (Figs 12, 13), this is generally taken to mean that they are to be associated with Period 2 asses and semisses. D’Ailly did not notice that among the many lower-weight star-before quadrantes in his own collection there were four that were of higher weight and in style equal to the fi ne-style (Period 1) asses and semisses. When the star-before quadrantes were assigned to Period 2, by association the other star-before fractions became linked to the Period 2 asses and semisses, and, by default, fractions with star above the prow were linked to the Period 1 fi ne-style series. The arrangement is easy to use, the large denominations being distinguished on the grounds of Period 1 or 2 style, and the smaller star-before denominations classifi ed to Period 2 and, by default, star-above to Period 1. Crawford does not dispute this arrangement. For RRC 113, he illustrates the as. For RRC 196 he illustrates the as and the quadrans, although the quadrans which he uses, the key coin in the story, is of a different and fi ner style than that usually encountered.
ROMAN REPUBLICAN STAR BRONZES, RRC 113 AND 196 101 Neither Grueber nor Sydenham 2 distinguish the issues but rather gather all star coins together, Sydenham as his catalogue number 264, Grueber as Rome 461- 469. Interestingly Grueber describes the BM quadrantes as ‘exceptionally light weight’ (3.5 to 5g). He lists in footnotes several varieties which are not in the British Museum. 3 Two other numismatists have looked at the series, Santini and Zehnacker. 4 Santini reproduces d’Ailly’s arrangement with the addition of further examples. He admits that the classifi cation presents many diffi culties, such are the irregularities and inconsistencies of the series, probably stemming from differences in mints and periods. He repeats the basic classifi cation of the asses into one recognisably goodstyle main issue (RRC 113/2), and other issues (RRC 196/1). As for the fractions, the conclusion that the many star-before quadrantes are of lighter weight confi rms the general classifi cation, but is reinforced by the fact that star-before trientes are also of lighter weight. So he again supports the classifi cation suggested by d’Ailly. Zehnacker, while considering the silver in great depth, defers again to d’Ailly on bronzes, but compounds the misunderstanding of the bronze issues by including line-drawings of imaginary asses with star before or star under prow and using them to discuss matters of style. None of these numismatists commented on the specifi c technical details of the reverse design, which provide the solution to the classifi cation dilemma. 2. Features of proper RRC 113 asses and semisses (Period 1 style) As mentioned above, the two denominations that can be classifi ed without diffi culty are the asses and semisses. The following features are present consistently in all examples of RRC 113 (Figs 1, 2 above and Fig. 5 below): Reverse: 1. Prow-stem is straight, long and slim. 2. Two close lower wales (horizontal lines above keel but below the mid-wale line of dots) curve down and, from left to right, converge toward keel. 3. Wales meet in a short rostrum tridens which projects, if at all, only a little past the hull. 4. The A in ROM_ is open, i.e. the bar of the A is angled and is connected to only one of the two vertical supports of the letter. Obverse: 5. Stern, regular, uniform features 6. Beards made mostly of tufts The same features occur on the semisses. 2 H. Grueber, Coins of the Roman Republic in the British Museum (London, 1910, repr. 1970); E. Sydenham, The Coinage of the Roman Republic (London, 1952). 3 Grueber, op. cit., p. 55 note 2. 4 A. Santini, Saggio di catalogo generale della monete consolari anonime con simboli (Milan, 1939); H. Zehnacker, Moneta : recherches sur l’organisation et l’art des émissions monétaires de la République romaine (289-31 av. J. C.) (Rome, 1973).
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