TYPE Roman Empire, Antoninus Pius (138-161 AD), silver denarius DESCRIPTION . Obv: Laureate head of Antoninus to right, legend: ANTONINVS AVG PIVS PP TRP COS III Rev: Italia seated left on globe, holding cornucopiae and scepter, legend: ITALIA REFERENCE: SR 1238, RSC 463 GRADING: AVF, toned, scarce ORDER INFO: R1332, $85 A scarce and rather notorious issue, alluding to the Italian dominion over the world. The globe that the personification of Italy sits on might represent the Earth (in this case indicating that Romans conceived of it as a sphere - though making the coin's claim a stretch, since the "known world" they ruled was hardly spherical), or perhaps even broader - Ptolomaic "heavenly spheres" (making the claim bolder yet). Practically, it was probably a political move needed to reassure the "original Romans" - natives of Italy - that the Empire, while indeed grand by then, was nonetheless not diluting its original cultural identity.