There is no picture on the obverse of this inconspicuous small coin from antique Rome, only the three letters RCC. When the coin was struck, this was a generally known abbreviation meaning "Remissa ducentesima." The "ducentesima" was a tax of five percent on all auctioned goods. Emperor Caligula (37-41) abolished this tax for all such goods traded in Italy, the heartland of the Roman Empire. The reverse of our coin depicts a pileus, the traditional headdress of emancipated slaves. The pileus was a fashion that the Romans had adopted from Phrygia in Asia Minor. Standing for freedom in general, it on this coin decodes the tax rescission as a sign of liberty.