Coin Showing a Voter This coin from 63 B.C.E. shows a citizen dropping a tablet into a voting urn, the Roman equivalent of today’s ballot box. The V on the tablet means a yes vote, and an inscription on the coin identifies the moneyer, the official who controlled coin production and decided what would be shown on them. This moneyer, Lucius Cassius Longinus, depicted a vote held fifty years earlier about whether an ancestor of his should be named prosecutor in a trial charging three vestal virgins with unchastity. As was common among moneyers, Longinus chose this image as a way to advance his political career, in this case by suggesting his family’s long history of public office. (Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, France/Snark/Art Resource, NY)