Room For Interpretation

But what information on this side of the coin helps us identify the woman that is portrayed? You may have noticed that some information is lacking. There are no words or letters written on the front of the coin. Besides that, there’s nothing shown on the coin that tells us how much it's worth, like modern coins have. In the Late Republic time period, people recognized a coin’s size and material and thus knew the value it represented. So, people in this time took in the size and weight, recognized it as a silver coin and understood they were holding a Denarius, which was the pay of a common soldier per day in this time period.

Let’s flip the coin and take a closer look at the back. This side can possibly elaborate on the identification of a Vestal Virgin Aemilia on the front side.