Pre-Long Beach Auction #80

L. Papius. Silver Denarius (4.00 g), 79 BC. Rome. Head of Juno Sospita right, wearing goat's skin headdress; behind, amphora. Reverse L PAPI in exergue, griffin springing right; below, hydria. Crawford 384/1 (symbols 2); Sydenham 773; Papia 1. Boldly struck and perfectly centered. Rare symbol. Amazing detail throughout and delicately toned. Superb Extremely Fine.

Although the moneyer is unknown except for his coins, the coins are very popular with collectors for the interesting controls they display, which according to Crawford "are no more than a random selection of pairs of everyday objects" (p. 399). Papius used two related symbols, one on the obverse die, the other on the reverse, to keep track of production and to control losses amongst the slaves at the mint. Each pair of controls only has one set of dies. On this particular coin the paired symbols are an amphora and a hydria, both related to wine, the amphora for storage and the hydria for mixing wine with water (unlike barbarians with the uncouth habit of consuming it undiluted, the Romans and Greeks always drank their wine mixed with water, often with the addition of spices or honey for flavoring).
Estimated Value $1,500 - 2,000.
Ex Triton XV (3-4 January 2012), 1472.