6 
COINS. 
II. ROMAN COINAGE. 
In 1867, by the exchange of duplicates, specimens of the Roman 
As in its original and reduced size, as of its fractional parts, were 
placed in the York Museum cabinet. 
The first silver coinage of Rome took place in 268 b.c. The 
denarius continued as another name for the English silver penny 
and ‘d,’ its initial, is still used for penny. The oldest Roman 
silver coins bear the double head of Janus and the quadriga, the 
head of Roma and the Dioscuri on horseback and above them the 
stars. On another reverse is shown Victory in a biga. Subse¬ 
quently, other heads occur on the obverse, while the reverse is 
occupied by a device allusive to legendary or historical events 
connected with the family of the mint maker. Of the three names 
which every Roman of family bore, as Publius Cornelius Scipio, 
the second is the surname and the third that of the family. 
Amongst these coins in the Museum, one of M. Porcius Lseca 
ailudes to the celebrated Porcian law, by which it was forbidden 
to scourge with rods a Roman citizen. The tribune, who proposed 
the law, lived in the year 197 b.c., but the coin is not older than 
the time of Cicero and the Catalinarian conspiracy in which a 
Lseca was concerned. A denarius of C. Valerius Flaccus bears 
the winged head of Victory, and on the other side the three ranks 
of Roman infantry are represented. On the reverse of a coin of 
Titus Veterius is shown the sacrifice of a pig in declaring Peace. 
A coin of Caius Lentulus Cornelius has on it the head of the 
youthful Hercules with lion’s skin and club and shield, while on 
the reverse Victory is offering a wreath to a figure wearing a mural 
crown. The suppression of a revolt of the slaves in Sicily is 
commemorated on a coin of Manius Aquillus. It is rare to find 
the names of minters on brass coins, but one in the Museum bears 
A.P., probably for a member of the Appuleian family. The only 
coins in this series found in York belong to the family of Antonia, 
of whom Akerman mentions there are 138 varieties. The five 
recorded depict on one side the Roman Eagle between two military 
standards, and on the other side a galley. 
The Roman coins which circulated in our district belong almost 
entirely to the Imperial Series, and range from Augustus to 
Honorius. 
The Imperial Series began with Augustus who assumed the right 
of coinage of gold and silver but left to the Senate the issuing of 
bronze coins. The moneyers’ names do not appear on the Imperial 
