Catalog
1 Quadrans
| Issuer | Uncertain city of Central Italy |
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| Year | 301 BC - 201 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | A frog depicted in relief at center, rendered in a schematic, archaic style characteristic of Central Italian aes grave coinage. Three pellets arranged around the frog serve as value marks denoting the quadrans denomination. The flan is irregular and slightly convex, consistent with cast bronze production of the period. |
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| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
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| Mintage | ND (301 BC - 201 BC) |
| Additional information |
The cast bronze coinages of uncertain Central Italian mints present persistent attribution problems that have occupied scholars since Haeberlin's foundational typological work in the early twentieth century. This quadrans falls into a cluster of heavy aes grave issues whose city of origin remains unresolved — the candidates include several Samnite and Latin communities whose monetary output overlapped considerably during the Second and Third Samnite Wars.
At this weight, the piece conforms to the uncial or pre-reduction Roman standard before the Hannibalic War forced successive debasements that collapsed cast bronze coinage almost entirely by the late third century.