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1 Quadrans Dots left

Issuer Uncertain city of Central Italy
Year 301 BC - 201 BC
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Value Quadrans (1/4)
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Obverse description A stylized barley grain rendered in low relief at the center of the flat field, oriented horizontally. Three pellets (value marks denoting the quadrans denomination) are arranged to the left of the grain. The flan is broad, thick, and irregularly cast, with a raised rim encircling the design, characteristic of Central Italian aes grave production.
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Reverse description A sunburst or wheel motif composed of sixteen radiating rays emanating from a central raised boss, filling the entire field. The rays are rendered in low relief with uniform spacing, consistent with the cast aes grave tradition of Central Italy. The flan exhibits the typical rough, porous surface associated with sand-cast bronze coinage of the 3rd century BC, with a broad flat border encircling the design.
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Additional information

The heavy cast bronzes of uncertain central Italian origin present one of Roman numismatics' more stubborn attribution problems. The "dots left" variety designation tracks a pellet placement detail used by scholars to distinguish die groups within what may represent output from multiple autonomous mints operating under broadly similar metrological conventions during the Second Punic War period — or, equally plausibly, a single mint across a production span of several decades.

At roughly 96 grams, this piece predates the systematic debasement that would eventually reduce the Roman as to a fraction of its original weight by the close of the third century BC.

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