Ave!

L. Papius, Serrate Denarius, Griffin, Two Bucraniums!

Silver Plated; 19mm/3.0gm    Rome, ca. 79 BC

Con/ Large test cut on the reverse, otherwise, Very Fine.

Obv/ Head of Juno Sospita to right, wearing goat-skin headdress tied beneath her chin. behind, bucranium with garlands.

Rev/ L•PAPI; Griffin leaping to right; below, bucranium with garlands.

Ref/ Babelon (Papia) 1. Crawford 384/1. RBW 1412 var. (differing control marks). Sydenham 773.

Seller's Note/ Back in 79 BC, L. Papius was a very busy moneyer, striking at least 232 varieties of such issues as ours, all with the same Juno Sospita obverse and the leaping griffin reverse. In 1939, Sydenham proposed that variety of the symbols represented trade guilds in Rome; IE Shoemakers, leather workers, stone masons, priests, and on and on. These issues are not exactly rare, but they are scarce, for sure. 

Ours, featuring the two bucraniums, without any doubt at all, represents the Guild of Priests sacrificing a bull.