Struck by a military mint travelling with Caesar.

moving mint (Cisalpine Gaul or Hispania). Oldschool interpretation of iconography is that elephant symbolize powerful Caesar and snake his enemies but this view must be revised. According to Harlan the Caesar's issue is reaction to the Acilius' with Salus holding snake which was in fact struck in 50 BC. Salus with snake represent health of the Republic. "Dio Cassius made it clear that the most vehement enemy of Caesar in the Senate debates of 50 was Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio who put forward the motion that Caesar be declared a public enemy if he did not disband his troops. Caesar said that the Senate was intimated by threats from Pompey’s friends and reluctantly adopted Scipio’s proposal. Caesar put much of the blame for the civil war on Scipio who had become Pompey’s father-in-law in 52 and had shared the consulship with Pompey that year. Recounting the reasons for the civil war, Caesar was careful to avoid blaming Pompey directly and he claimed that Pompey had been led astray and corrupted (depravatum) by Caesar’s enemies who were jealous of his glory, while he himself had always promoted Pompey’s honor and dignity. …….. With a very clever, yet simple, turn on the Pompeian propaganda of Acilius’ coin, the snake has been taken from the hands of Valetudo and trampled by the Metellan elephant. Caesar showed Rome that Metellus Scipio and his supporters were the true threat to the health and safety of the Republic, the true cause of the civil war." Sacrificial implements reminds Caesar as Pontifex Maximus.

moving mint (Africa or Sicily). Ceres symbolizes Africa as granary of Rome. M on reverse means munus - payment for soldier's service. These coins probably served to pay Caesar's veterans after battle of Thapsus.

This issue was probably struck in Africa during Caesar’s campaign against Metellus Pius Scipio and Labienus. The types are purely propagandistic in nature; the obverse depicts Venus, from whom Caesar claimed descent via Iulus, son on the legendary Trojan prince Aeneas, who was himself the son of Anchises and Venus. The reverse depicts Aeneas’ flight from the doomed city of Troy, with his elderly father Anchises upon his shoulder. As seen in the first books of the Aeneid, Aeneas is one of the few Trojans who were not killed in battle or enslaved when Troy fell. The city having been sacked by the Greeks, Aeneas, after being commanded by the gods to flee, gathered a group, collectively known as the Aeneads, who then travelled to Italy and became progenitors of the Roman people.

Military mint traveling with Caesar.