Obverse: Helmeted head of Roma to left; • (mark of value) behind.

Reverse: Prow of galley to right; ROMA above, • (mark of value) below.

Crawford 38/6; Sydenham 86; RBW 98. [Rome, circa 217-215 BC].

Diameter: 24 mm. Weight: 11.7 g.

A beautiful Republican bronze Uncia issued by Rome, circa 217-215. This coin was struck during the Second Punic War 218-201 BC. A few years earlier in 219 BC Hannibal had besieged, captured and sacked the pro-Roman city of Saguntum, prompting a Roman declaration of war on Carthage in spring 218 BC. That year, Hannibal surprised the Romans by marching his army overland from Iberia, through Gaul and over the Alps to Cisalpine Gaul. Reinforced by Gallic allies, he obtained crushing victories over the Romans at the battles of Trebia in 218 BC and Lake Trasimene 217 BC. Moving to southern Italy in 216 BC, Hannibal defeated the Romans again at the Battle of Cannae, where he annihilated the largest army the Romans had ever assembled. After the death or capture of more than 120,000 Roman troops in less than two years, many of Rome's Italian allies, notably Capua, defected to Carthage, giving Hannibal control over much of southern Italy. The Romans took drastic steps to raise new legions, enrolling slaves, criminals, and those who did not meet the usual property qualification and so vastly increasing the number of men they had under arms. The combination of head and ship’s prow is distinctive of Republican bronze coinage, the design being the origin of the phrase ‘heads or ships’ (‘capita aut navia’) used in the Roman period rather than the modern ‘heads or tails’ when tossing a coin (see Macrobius Saturnalia 1.7.21). An excellent example well centred and sharply struck with an exceptionally detailed depiction of a Roman war galley on the reverse.