Obverse: Head of young Hercules facing right, clad in lion's skin.

Reverse: The Erymanthian boar running right, M VOLTEI M F in ex.

RRC: 385/2. Sear: 313. CRR: 775. RSC: Volteia 2. [Rome, 78 BC].

Diameter: 18 mm. Weight: 4.1 g.

An excellent Roman Republican silver denarius struck by the moneyer M. Volteius M.f in 78 BC. The obverse bears the image of a youthful, beardless Hercules, clad in his lion skin headdress. The reverse depicts the Erymanthian boar, the subject of the fourth of Hercules’ Twelve Labours. The gigantic boar lived on the slopes of Mount Erymanthus, and regularly came charging down the mountain, ravaging the farms below, and terrorising the local inhabitants with its razor sharp tusks. Hercules task was not to kill the boar, but to capture it alive and bring it back to his challenger Eurystheus. Hercules tracks the boar and chases it from the thicket, exhausting it in a relentless pursuit. Finally he drives it into a deep snow drift, allowing him to capture the boar alive. A lovely example of this scarce and interesting mythological type, well centred with attractive dark toning.