THE COIN COLLECTOR - World eBook Library

THE COLLECTOR SERIES
association of Castor and Pollux with the legendary
annals of Rome may be familiar to those who have
read Macaulay's "Lay of the Battle of the Lake
Res-illus." The denarius had been in circulation some
length of time before the quinarius or half was added,
and the sestertius or sesquitertius or quarter was pro-
bably a still later institution.
The silver republican money of Rome is plentiful
enough to this day, and with its beautiful and fasci-
nating types, so diversified, so chaste, so eloquent, lies
within the reach of any one at the most moderate
prices in pristine condition, if we except certain fami-
lies, which happen to be rare, and the gold, which is
always costly. Nor should it be forgotten that pieces
belonging to the most ancient mintage are of the
greatest rarity, having been presumably struck in
smaller numbers. The original simplicity of the de-
sign was naturally lost in the more elaborate details,
which found room on obverse and reverse in course of
time, including the name of the gens or the individual
and that of the moneyer. The art is throughout Greek,
and if there is any fault in the execution it generally
lies in the reverses, where the nude human figure is por-
trayed. There cannot be a more charming series for a
collector who does not desire heavy expenditure, and
does not insist on completeness; and the vietoriati and
their divisions and multiples, which were posterior in
their appearance by nearly a century, constitute appro-
priate adjuncts to the denarius group, where we may read
a history in little of the period over which it extended.
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