Crawford 330/1a

Moneyer:  L. Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus and Q. Servilius Caepio, 100 BC

Denomination: Denarius

Obverse:  Laureate head of Saturn to right; falx a curved agricultural tool, similar to a scythe) behind, PISO CAEPIO Q around, [trident] below

Reverse:  Two quaestors seated to left on subsellium (ceremonial bench for magistrates without imperium) between two stalks of grain; A D•FRV•EMV EX•S•C in two lines below

Mint: Rome

Reference: Crawford 330/1a

Weight: 3,93 g

Notes: 

The reverse legend resolves: ad frumentum emundum ex senatus consulto ("for the purchase of grain by the order of the senate").

The "Q" on the obverse is used to distinguish Caepio (quaestor urabnus) and Piso (quaestor Ostiensis) from the ordinary moneyers of the year. 

This is one of the few coin types for which the date is certain because of literary testimony.

The first denarius to portray actual living Romans (on the reverse).  

Pretty consistently on the Roman Republican Series the attribute of Saturn is identified as the harpa.  In fact the logic is a little circular, if its Saturn it must be the harpa and if there is a harpa with a bearded divinity it must be Saturn.

The harpa is a tool otherwise usually associated with Perseus who used it to cut off the head of Medusa and it is a regular numismatic symbol like Heracles’ club, though not precisely as common. 

While on some later Roman Republic issues the harpa is clear and obvious, on this coin we cannot be sure that infact we see a harpa, the object. Whatever this implement is it clearly has ‘teeth’ and is a single curved piece, not a blade with a hook or prong, such as we associate with the word harpa.  Of course, at its most basic the word harpa just means sickle or curved blade in Greek, the general equivalent of falx, falxis in Latin.  The earlier Saturn is clearly associated with something other than the tool of Perseus with which he is bestowed in the imperatorial period.  What is that earlier tool? See interesting commentary of Liv Mariah Yarrow at https://livyarrow.org/tag/harpa/  

Collection : 16 Roman Republic