The obverse of this Roman denarius from the year 127 BC depicts the head of Roma, the goddess and personification of Rome. The reverse shows a Macedonian shield with a rather schematic elephant's head in the middle. The inscription around it reads M. METELLVS. Q. F. for the moneyer Marcus Caecilius Metellus. All that is surrounded by a laurel wreath.
The elephant's head was the crest of the Metellus family since the victory of one of their ancestors over the Carthaginians at Panormos in Sicily. On that occasion, Carthaginian war elephants had been captured. The Macedonian shield on this coin alludes to another feat of a family member in the year 148 BC in Macedonia.