Finds Tray – Roman coin

This coin, found by a metal-detectorist near Basingstoke in Hampshire, was minted in North Africa during Julius Caesar’s Civil War (49-45 BC), and is a fascinating example of Roman Republican propaganda. At the time the coin was issued, Caesar’s army was in the Roman province of Africa (which encompassed modern Tunisia and parts of Libya and Algeria), fighting the troops of Cato, a senator who was one of many politicians opposed to the wealth and power that Caesar had amassed following his success in the Gallic Wars. The coin, a silver denarius, was possibly minted within the army in order to pay Caesar’s soldiers. The obverse shows the head of the goddess Venus, from whom Caesar