The Collection of Roman Republican Coins of a Student and his Mentor Part III 30 asses circa 217-215, AV 4.48 g. Laureate Janiform head of the Dioscuri; below, XXX. Rev. Oath taking scene with two warriors, one Roman and the other representing the Italian allies, standing facing each other, holding spears and touching with their swords a pig held by a figure kneeling between them. In exergue, ROMA. Bahrfeldt 3, 1 and pl. I, 17 (this coin). R. Thompson, Early Roman Coinage I, fig. 144. Of the highest rarity, only four specimens known of which this is the only one in private hands. An issue of incredible importance and fascination. An edge nick at two o’clock on obverse, otherwise good extremely fine Ex Rollin & Feuardent 25-30 April 1887, Ponton d’Amécourt, 2; Hirsch XXI, 1908, Consul Weber, 248; Cahn-Hess 17 July 1933, Haeberlin, 3 and NAC 5, 1992, 250 sales.The Roman bronze coinage underwent a well-documented series of weight reductions during the second Punic war. The cast bronze as was being made to a libral standard (actually about 10 ounces) at the start of the war. Whilst the silver quadrigatus remained unchanged, the cast bronze coinage was reduced to a semilibral standard (actually about five ounces) between late 217 and early 215 BC, and lower denominations were struck rather than cast for the first time. The emergency conditions then seem to have prompted a precipitous decline in the coinage, both in the silver quadrigatus which dropped in both weight and fineness, and the associated cast bronze coinage which dropped in weight and in manufacturing quality. Sometime about 214-212 BC, a new fine silver coinage was introduced, with the denarius as the main coin. The bronze coinage also stabilised from that time, with good quality struck bronzes generally being minted at weights of between one fifth and one eight of a pound, a standard usually referred to as sextantal. This was supplemented by some lighter emergency issues in conflict areas such as south-east Italy. During that early denarius period, a 60 as gold piece (RRC 44/2) weighed three scruples or 1/96 Roman pound. It equated to 60 sextantal bronze asses, weighing in total about 10 pounds. This implies a gold-bronze ratio of about 960:1 at this time. If we assume the gold to bronze value ratio remained unchanged in the early second Punic war, the four scruple weight (1/72 pound) of this oath scene gold coin would equate to thirty bronze asses, each weighing about five ounces. That tallies with the semilibral bronze standard which Crawford dates between late 217 and early 215 BC (RRC p.43). Crawford associates the oath scene coinage, as a whole, to this same semilibral bronze standard period, with some oath scene gold being associated with later examples of incuse-legend quadrigati 217-216 BC, and others with early examples of relief-legend quadrigati 216-215 BC (RRC p.44). The quadrigatus style with which this coin is associated, RRC 31/1 pl.IV,10, has legends that are transitional between incuse and relief. If we are working within the bounds of Crawford’s overall dating scheme, this would place this coin within the same period as the general issue of oath scene coinage, but at the latter part of that period, perhaps dating to late 216 or early 215 BC, or in other words, immediately after the battle of Cannae, and with the denomination mark XXX referring to thirty of the then-current semibral cast asses.