Bigati - A class of Roman silver coins, so called from their bearing on the reverse side the type of cahriot drawn by two horses. The line drawing below of a denarius of the Saufeia gens is an example of this common reverse type:
Roman silver coins with a bigae (biga) on the reverse were called bigati, and with quadrigae (quadriga) were called quadrigati.
Tacitus talks about these coins saying that the Germani, who generally traded by barter, would take in payment old and well known money such as bigati; and Livy frequently uses the term when he enumerates the amount of Spanish and Cisalpine booty. It was a long period before the portraits of living people were placed on Roman coins; and for centuries the denarii of the republic presented on the obverse the head of the goddess Roma, or of Pallas; and on the reverse a figure of Victory, with garland and palm branch, standing on a car (or chariot) drawn by either two or four horses. Hence they were called bigati, quadrigati, and victoriati.