ANCIENT ROMAN REPUBLICAN SILVER DENARIUS MARK ANTONY /32-31 B.C./

Obv: ANT AVC / III·VIR·R·P·C, Galley right, with rowers; a standard is placed at the prow

Rev: Legionary Eagle and Standards – LEG XII

3.96 Grams / 1.9 cm

This coin was issued by Marc Antony to pay his troops during the struggle with Octavian. This contest for supreme power in the Roman world spelled the end of the Republic and ushered in the Imperial age, with Octavian as Augustus (Rome's first emperor). The final struggle in this historic drama, that shaped the future of the Western world, came at the Battle of Actium.

Coins such as this one were struck for a specific purpose, such as to pay troops for their service or make a payment to a specific foreign ruler. These denarii of Marc Antony's were such an issue, produced in traveling mints, bearing even the number of the legion for whom they were intended.