Obverse: Conjoined and laureate heads of Dei Penates facing left D P P before.

Reverse: The two Dei Penates standing facing each other, resting on spears and pointing at a large sow which lies between them, control letter P above.

RRC: 312/1. Sear: 189. CRR: 572. RSC: Sulpicia 1. [Rome, 106 BC].

Diameter: 20 mm. Weight: 3.8 g.

A superb example of this classic Roman Republican coin depicting a prophecy from the Aeneid. The Dei Penates were Roman household gods originally worshipped as two youthful male statues - sacred objects believed to have been rescued by Aeneas at the fall of Troy and carried by him to Italy. The reverse refers to Aeneas' landing in Lavinium with the Penates, and the subsequent miracle of the great white sow which foretold the founding of Alba Longa.

"In the place where a white sow casts thirty piglets under an oak tree, a new city shall be built. (Lavinium) also, a new city called after the white sow shall be built by Ascanius 30 years later" (Alba Longa).

A beautiful example of this interesting mythological issue, celebrating one of Romes many foundation myths, and obvious choice for the moneyer as Lavinium was his home town! Struck on a large flan, well centred with sharp detail and areas of exquisite electric blue toning.