★ Very rare quadrans, oil jar on thong ★

Roman Republic - Ti. Veturius - Æ Quadrans (3.70 g. 20 mm.). Rome, 137 BC.

Head of Hercules right, wearing lion's skin; three pellets (mark of value) behind /

ROMA Oil jar on thong, and strigil; TI • VETVR below.

Crawford 234/2a; Sydenham 528.

Very Fine. Very Rare.

The quadrantes of TI·VETVR are the first bronze coins of the denarius issues to break with the normal prow right reverse. They show two strigils and an oil-flask tied together so that an athlete might carry them. Crawford commented that the type ”is curious, but consistent with the unconventional types of the denarius. It has excited interest since its discovery … and is traditionally interpreted … as indicating that the quadrans was the price of entry to the bath. It has also been connected … with the existence of a ball-player Veturius. Both theories seem to me improbable”. He suggests, instead, that the strigils and oil-flask may be attributed to Hercules (the obverse type) being the patron god of athletic games. This is the only occurrence of the type on Roman coins. Stannard has drawn attention to the fact that it is one of the diagnostic types of the Italo-Baetican monetiform lead issues of Southern Spain (Numismatic evidence for relations between Spain and Central Italy at the turn of the first and second centuries BC, Revue Suisse de Numismatique 84, 2005, pp. 47-79.)