Catalog
1 Obol With caduceus
| Issuer | Signia |
|---|---|
| Year | 280 BC - 275 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | Helmeted head of Mercury facing right, wearing a winged petasus; the portrait rendered in archaic Italic style with crisp engraving. A caduceus symbol appears below or before the neck, serving as a divine attribute of the deity. The field is plain and the flan slightly irregular, as characteristic of early Central Italian coinage of the period. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A boar charging to the right, depicted in a dynamic, energetic pose with bristled back and legs outstretched in full gallop, rendered in bold, compact relief typical of early Italic coinage. The legend SEIC appears in the exergue or below the boar in archaic Latin characters, serving as an abbreviated ethnic for the Latin colony of Signia. The flan is slightly irregular and the overall style reflects the primitive yet vigorous engraving traditions of Central Italy circa 280–275 BC. |
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| Additional information |
Signia — modern Segni, in Latium — was a Latin colony whose coinage output was minimal by any measure. This obol belongs to the colony's only known silver issue, struck almost certainly in connection with the financial demands of the Pyrrhic War, when Rome's Italian allies were drawn into provisioning and funding a conflict that stretched from Heraclea to Beneventum. The series is small enough that the handful of reference citations it carries effectively accounts for most of the known specimens across major collections.