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In the entire history of coinage — three thousand years of kings, emperors, republics, and revolutions — no coin carries more concentrated historical weight than the Eid Mar Denarius. It was struck in 42 BC by Marcus Junius Brutus, one of the men who drove daggers into Julius Caesar on the floor of the Theatre of Pompey. It did not merely commemorate an event. It announced one. It was propaganda, confession, and declaration of principle minted in silver and distributed to the soldiers who had carried out the killing — and to the Roman world that would have to live with what had been done.
This is the story of that coin, and of the extraordinary moment in history it was made to mark.
The Ides of March: What Happened on 15 March 44 BC
By the winter of 44 BC, Julius Caesar had accumulated more power than any Roman before him. He had been appointed dictator perpetuo — dictator in perpetuity — a title that had no precedent in Roman constitutional history and that many senators regarded as kingship in everything but name. Rome was, in theory, a republic: a state governed by law, by the Senate, by the will of its citizens. Caesar's position made a mockery of that theory.
A group of senators — historians count between 23 and 60 men involved at various levels — concluded that Caesar had to die. They called themselves the Liberatores. Their leaders were Gaius Cassius Longinus and Marcus Junius Brutus. On the 15th of March — the Ides of March in the Roman calendar — they surrounded Caesar at a Senate meeting in the Theatre of Pompey. Caesar was stabbed 23 times. He was 55 years old. He fell at the foot of a statue of Pompey, the general he had defeated in civil war.
The assassination did not restore the Republic. It triggered 13 more years of civil war, ended with the total defeat of the Liberatores, and ultimately produced the Roman Empire under Caesar's adopted son Octavian — Augustus — the first Roman emperor. The men who killed Caesar to save the Republic destroyed it instead.
Who Was Brutus?
Marcus Junius Brutus is one of the most debated figures in ancient history. He was a man of genuine philosophical conviction — a Stoic who had written on ethics and governance — and his involvement in the conspiracy was taken by the Liberatores as the ultimate moral endorsement of what they were doing. Caesar had trusted him. He had, according to some accounts, loved him. The line Shakespeare gives Caesar — Et tu, Brute? — whether historical or invented, captures something true about the symbolic weight of Brutus's participation: if even Brutus was among the killers, the killing must have been just.
Brutus was the great-great-grandson of Lucius Junius Brutus, the man who had expelled the kings from Rome in 509 BC and founded the Republic. His family name was synonymous with the defence of republican liberty against tyranny. When Brutus struck the Eid Mar Denarius, he was invoking that entire inheritance — placing himself in a line of Roman heroes who had done what had to be done to keep Rome free.
The Eid Mar Denarius: What the Coin Shows
The obverse of the coin — the front face — shows the portrait of Brutus himself. This was a radical departure. Roman Republican coins traditionally showed the images of gods, or allegorical figures, or the portraits of ancestors. To put a living man's face on a coin was precisely what Caesar had done — and what the Liberatores had regarded as a symptom of his monarchical ambition. Brutus's decision to do the same is one of the coin's great ironies, and one of its most debated aspects. The inscription reads BRVT IMP — Brutus, Imperator — and L PLAET CEST, the name of the moneyer who oversaw the striking.
The reverse tells the story directly. At the centre sits a pileus — the felt cap given to freed slaves in Rome as a symbol of their liberation. Flanking it on either side stand two daggers, their blades pointing downward. Below, the inscription: EID MAR. Ides of March. The image requires no further explanation. Two daggers. A liberty cap. The date of the killing. Brutus was not concealing what had happened. He was advertising it.
What Does Eid Mar Mean?
EID MAR is an abbreviation of Eidibus Martiis — Latin for "on the Ides of March." The Roman calendar divided each month into three reference points: the Kalends (first day), the Nones (fifth or seventh day depending on the month), and the Ides (the 13th or 15th). March was one of the months in which the Ides fell on the 15th.
The phrase had no particular significance before 44 BC. After the assassination it became — and has remained — one of the most loaded dates in Western history. Shakespeare's soothsayer warns Caesar to beware the Ides of March. The phrase entered the English language as a byword for impending doom. All of that weight comes from this coin and the event it commemorated.
When and Where Was It Minted?
The coin was not struck on the day of the assassination. It was minted in 42 BC — two years later — by a travelling military mint that moved with Brutus's army as he prepared to face Mark Antony and Octavian at the Battle of Philippi. The coins were intended as military pay: silver denarii given to the legions who were about to fight for the Liberatores' cause. The Eid Mar imagery was not simply commemorative. It was motivational — a reminder to every soldier being paid what they were fighting for, and what had been done to make the fight necessary.
The mint was almost certainly somewhere in the eastern Mediterranean — Greece or western Asia Minor — where Brutus had consolidated his forces after fleeing Rome following Caesar's death.
The Rarest Roman Coin in the World
Fewer than 100 examples of the Eid Mar Denarius are known to exist. Most are in museums. In 2020, a gold aureus version of the coin — one of only three known — sold at auction for £2.7 million, making it the most expensive ancient coin ever sold at the time. Even silver examples in poor condition command tens of thousands of pounds at specialist auction.
The rarity is partly a function of time — 2,000 years is a long time for silver to survive — and partly a function of deliberate destruction. After the defeat of Brutus at Philippi in 42 BC, Octavian had every reason to suppress the coins that celebrated Caesar's killing. How many were melted down in the years following the battle will never be known.
For collectors who want to engage with this history without the auction-house price tag, the EID MAR Brutus Denarius Roman Coin from One More Coin is an historically accurate collectible replica inspired by the original denarius — the pileus, the daggers, the inscription, the portrait of Brutus — produced as a commemorative collectible token for display and collection. An example of a modern collectible inspired by one of history's most significant ancient coins can be seen here.
What Happened to Brutus After the Coin Was Struck?
The Battle of Philippi in October 42 BC was decisive. Brutus and Cassius faced the combined forces of Mark Antony and Octavian in Macedonia. The battle unfolded in two engagements. In the first, Brutus's forces defeated Octavian's wing — but Cassius, believing the battle lost on his side, took his own life. In the second engagement three weeks later, Brutus was defeated. He too died by his own hand, reportedly saying that virtue — the Stoic principle he had lived by — had proved insufficient against fortune.
With his death, the Liberatores' cause died with him. Octavian returned to Rome, neutralised Mark Antony, and by 27 BC had become Augustus — the first Roman emperor. The Republic that Brutus had killed Caesar to save was gone. The Eid Mar Denarius remained: a silver record of the moment a group of senators decided history could be changed at the point of a dagger, and discovered that it could not.
The Eid Mar as a Collectible
The appeal of the Eid Mar to collectors is not difficult to understand. No other coin places you so directly at the intersection of individual decision and historical consequence. The two daggers and the liberty cap are among the most legible symbols ever struck in metal: you know immediately what they mean, what they cost, and what they failed to achieve.
Collectors of Roman history, of political history, of the history of republican government, of the long story of tyranny and resistance — all find something in this coin that speaks to their interest. It is not a beautiful coin in the conventional sense. It is a brutal one, in every meaning of that word.
For those building an ancient coin collection, the Eid Mar sits naturally alongside other significant pieces from the Roman and Greek worlds. Our complete guide to ancient Greek coins covers the broader numismatic tradition from which Roman coinage developed — essential context for anyone serious about collecting in this area.
Because every collection deserves one more coin.
FAQ
What does Eid Mar mean?
EID MAR is an abbreviation of Eidibus Martiis, Latin for "on the Ides of March" — the 15th of March in the Roman calendar, the date on which Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC.
Who struck the Eid Mar Denarius?
The coin was struck by Marcus Junius Brutus in 42 BC, two years after the assassination, using a travelling military mint to pay his soldiers before the Battle of Philippi.
What does the reverse of the Eid Mar show?
The reverse shows a pileus (the felt cap of Roman freed slaves, representing liberty) flanked by two daggers — a direct reference to the assassination — with the inscription EID MAR below.
How rare is the original Eid Mar Denarius?
Fewer than 100 examples are known to survive. A gold aureus version sold for £2.7 million in 2020, making it one of the most expensive ancient coins ever auctioned.
Is the One More Coin Eid Mar a genuine ancient coin?
No. It is a commemorative collectible token inspired by the original denarius, produced for display, collection, and gifting. It is not issued by a government mint, not legal tender, and not an investment product.
What happened to Brutus after the assassination?
Brutus fled Rome, raised an army in the eastern Mediterranean, and faced Octavian and Mark Antony at the Battle of Philippi in 42 BC. Defeated, he died by his own hand. The Liberatores' cause died with him.
