Lucius Plautius Plancus, silver denarius, 3.59 g.
Title
Lucius Plautius Plancus, silver denarius, 3.59 g.
Creator
Lucius Plautius Plancus
Date
c. 47 BCE
Description
Obverse: Head of Medusa facing; [below, L PLAVTIVS]. Border of dots.
Reverse: Aurora, winged, holding palm branch with wreath and leading the four horses of the sun; below, PLANCVS.
Style/Period: Roman Republic
Lucius Plautius Plancus was praetor in 43 BCE. The image of Medusa on the obverse is similar to the masks used by people in Ovid's Fasti (vi.651f.). The reverse is a very common motif used on gems of the late Republic. It was perhaps borrowed from a picture by Nicomachus kept on the Capitoline Hill.
-- Bradford W. Wendel, LU '96
Bibliography: E. Babelon, Description historique et chronologique des monnaies de la republique romaine (Paris and London 1885-1886) Plautia, 15; H. A. Grueber, Coins of the Roman Republic in the British Museum (London 1910), I, 516-517, no. 4009; T. R. S. Broughton, The Magistrates of the Roman Republic, II (New York 1952) 448; E. A. Sydenham, The Coinage of the Roman Republic (London 1952) 160, no. 959b; M. H. Crawford, Roman Republican Coinage (London 1974) 468, no. 453/1c; R. A. G. Carson, Principal Coins of the Romans, I (London 1978) 60, no. 217; G. Walser, "Die Victoria des L. Munatius Plancus," in F. Eckstein (ed.), Θεωρια. Festschrift für W. H. Schuchhardt (Deutsche Beiträge zur Altertumwissenschaft, Doppelband 12/13, Baden-Baden 1960) 217-223.
-- Bradford W. Wendel, LU '96
Bibliography: E. Babelon, Description historique et chronologique des monnaies de la republique romaine (Paris and London 1885-1886) Plautia, 15; H. A. Grueber, Coins of the Roman Republic in the British Museum (London 1910), I, 516-517, no. 4009; T. R. S. Broughton, The Magistrates of the Roman Republic, II (New York 1952) 448; E. A. Sydenham, The Coinage of the Roman Republic (London 1952) 160, no. 959b; M. H. Crawford, Roman Republican Coinage (London 1974) 468, no. 453/1c; R. A. G. Carson, Principal Coins of the Romans, I (London 1978) 60, no. 217; G. Walser, "Die Victoria des L. Munatius Plancus," in F. Eckstein (ed.), Θεωρια. Festschrift für W. H. Schuchhardt (Deutsche Beiträge zur Altertumwissenschaft, Doppelband 12/13, Baden-Baden 1960) 217-223.
Source
Classics Department Collection
Identifier
C043
Rights
Wriston Art Center Galleries, Lawrence University, Appleton, WI,wriston-gallery@lawrence.edu,920-832-6890
Files
Citation
Lucius Plautius Plancus, “Lucius Plautius Plancus, silver denarius, 3.59 g.,” Lawrence University Classics Department & Ottilia Buerger Coin Collections, accessed November 5, 2026, https://thor.lawrence.edu/omeka/buerger/items/show/405.