P SICINIUS/COPONIUS Denarius RRC 444/1a

Denomination: Denarius
Era: C. 49 BC
Metal:  AR
Obverse: Head of Apollo diademed r. III.VIR to l., P SICINIUS r.; star below truncation.
Reverse:  Club of Hercules upright supporting lion skin with scalp of lion in profile.  PR.S.C to l.; CCOPONIVS R  
Mint: Rome
Weight: 3.93 g
Reference: RRC 444/1a
Provenance:  Nomisma SPA  Auction 63,  July 1, 2021 , lot 208. Ex NAC 4 / A, 2/27/1991, lot 1661 (500 CHF - $381)

Minor flan crack @ 6:00 obv.  Otherwise EF

Mint traveling with Pompey.   Grueber provides quite a lot of information about the magistrates.  Here is an excerpt: Early in 49, Sicinius was appointed a triumvir of the mint in Rome by the party of Pompey which was then in power.  Who his colleagues may have been we do not know, as their names are not met with on the coinage of that time.  On the arrival of Caesar, Sicinius let Rome, evidently in the company of C. Coponius, who was one of the praetors at the breaking out of the Civil war, and who, having espoused the side of Pompey, followed him into Greece, and had command of the Rhodian ships coingointly with C. Marcellus;  For we find Sicinius during the same year issuing coins for Coponius in the East in his own name and that of C. Coponius (this issue).  On those coins ... Sicinius still styles himself "triumvir."

This coinage which was evidently intended for the use of the fleet commanded by Coponius in the East, is of very exceptional nature, for we have an ordinary moneyer  of the Roman mint still using his official title and striking money for a praetor urbanus who had vacated his office.  To justify this action, the formula S.C. (Senatus Consulto) is added, in order that it might appear as if the coions were struck under senatorial authority.  This instance is quite unique in the whole series of military coinages of the Roman Republic. 

Collezione : Roman Republican Silver after 140 BC.