W ostatnim czasie udało się zarejestrować w jednym z prywatnych polskich zbiorów monet antycznych dwie brązowe monety należące do typu nienotowanego w dotychczasowej literaturze. Ze względu na niewątpliwe pochodzenie obiektów z obszaru Cyrenajki, jak również na podstawie zredukowanej legendy na rewersie oraz charakterystycznych motywów ikonograficznych, przedstawiane monety należy uznać za kwadranse Aulusa Pupiusa Rufusa — urzędnika rzymskiego, który w okresie poprzedzającym bitwę pod Akcjum (31 r. p.n.e.) odpowiadał m.in. za emisję monet na terenie Cyrenajki. Dotychczas znane były dwa typy bitych przez niego asów, dwa typy semisów oraz jeden typ kwadransa. Nieznany wcześniej drugi typ kwadransa, poddany analizie w niniejszym artykule, uzupełnia schemat mennictwa Pupiusa Rufusa w Cyrenajce o brakujący element.

The denarius of Marcus Junius Brutus, commemorating the Ides of March, can be placed among the coins most established in the collective imagination of ancient societies and, later, among those having the greatest impact on European humanism. One cannot point out another antique coin that refers directly to such a fateful historical event as the assassination of Julius Caesar. Respublica liberata, the work by Andreas Alciatus (1492–1550), printed in 1546, is outstanding among numerous, ancient and modern examples of the reception of Brutus’s coin. Alciatus, a famous Milanese lawyer, composed his work in the innovative form of an emblematic study. Emblematics enjoyed great popularity throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Symbols and allegorical representations were used as a universal media for describing the world. The distinguishing representation of daggers and pileus – according to the general idea of emblems – had been separated by Alciatus from its historical context and given a universal and ageless meaning. In this manner, the writer made the ancient iconographical type the general symbol of the liberation of a state from the rule of a tyrant.

The distinctive feature of money circulation in the area of Cyrenaica during the first decades of the Roman Empire is a considerable demand for small coins. This feature is common for the overwhelming majority of monetized urban areas in the declining years of the Republic and the early days of the Empire, and it was also one of the main reasons for the flourishing practice of cutting coins. A major increase in bronze coin finds cut into halves and quarters resulted from the excavations of the Polish archaeological mission in Ptolemais. At present, the group of cut bronze coins found in Ptolemais consists of 62 specimens, 57 of which come from Polish excavations conducted in the years 2002–2009, whereas fi ve, being surface finds from the site area, are in the collection of the local archaeological museum. This article was enhanced by a set of 21 coins from Cyrenaica, held in private collections.