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Roman Republic, Denarius Serratus

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Roman Republic, Denarius Serratus (obverse) Roman Republic, Denarius Serratus (reverse)

The letters D. P. P. below the two busts on the obverse of this denarius serratus identify the young men as Dei Penates Publici, as patron gods of the Roman public household. Legend had it that Aeneas brought the Penates from Troy to Italy, where he then founded the city of Lavinium.

The reverse depicts two male figures facing each other, pointing at a sow between them. Between their heads is a mint control mark, and below is the abbreviated moneyer's name C. SVLPICI. C. F. The reverse alludes to Lavinium, the origin of our moneyer's family, just as the obverse, because Aeneas had founded the city at the spot where he found a white sow suckling thirty piglets under an oak tree.

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