From Art to Artifact: Making Sense of Roman Coins
Denarius of Q. Pomponius Musa
Punning On Coins
This coin uses a ritual symbol in order to create a pun. The distinctive curved stick, or lituus, held by the figure on the right identifies this individual as an augur and puns on the moneyer’s name, Gaius Minucius Augurinus. Augurs used the lituus to mark out quadrants of the sky for receiving bird signs that affirmed all acts of Roman government.
Minted in 135 BCE, this coin represents the earliest example of punning on coins, a numismatic tradition that was continued by Q. Pomponius Musa and others throughout the Roman Republic (for a history of punning on coins see left). The latest example is of this phenomenon is the denarius of Quintus Voconius Vitulus (40 BCE or later), which featured a calf (Latin, vitulus) on the reverse.
Minted in 135 BCE, this coin represents the earliest example of punning on coins, a numismatic tradition that was continued by Q. Pomponius Musa and others throughout the Roman Republic (for a history of punning on coins see left). The latest example is of this phenomenon is the denarius of Quintus Voconius Vitulus (40 BCE or later), which featured a calf (Latin, vitulus) on the reverse.
