Follicle Friday: Men’s Hairstyles on Coins

Spend enough time photographing coins and you start to realize that numismatics doubles as an accidental barbershop archive of the elite.

For hundred of years, coin engravers have been quietly documenting men’s hairstyles. Not just tidy classical curls and dignified side parts—but the full parade. Towering 18th-century arrangements that wouldn’t look out of place in an ’80s glamrock band. A walrus mustache so large you wonder how they manage to eat.

So let’s have some fun with this.

I'll start with the 1948 Hungarian Silver 5 Forint. That's Sándor Petőfi, a Hungarian poet and liberal revolutionary, with a pompadour that defies gravity. Originally the pompadour was a ladies hairstyle named after Madame de Pompadour, (1721–1764), a mistress of King Louis XV of France, but Sándor rocks it too.


It looks like George IV, below, wasn't in the mood for posing on this day. He led an extravagant lifestyle and I'm guessing he was hungover at this portrait session. He has what looks suspiciously like bed head, and apparently couldn't be bothered run a comb through it or even put on a shirt.




The fellow on the 1947 Hungarian 5 Forint below is Lajos Kossuth, and in his mind a squirrel tail beard below the jaw line looks dashing. Or maybe he was trying to cover a double chin? I look at this portrait and think, “Sir, that is absolutely a comb-forward.” It is, but that's the style of the time and not his response to male pattern balding. Take a look at his Daguerreotype portrait from May 1852. I think you'll agree.



Post your best examples of memorable men’s hair from coins—facial or otherwise. The taller the wig, the wilder the chops, the more gravity-defying the beard, the better. If the hair makes you look twice, it belongs here.

 

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I'll start with my avatar coin. It's a tetradrachm of the Parthian king Artabanos IV (c.10- 38 CE). With his long, shaggy, hair, drooping mustache, and beard, he could be a member of a late 60s/early 70s band. The royal diadem he wears looks like a headband, which just adds to the look.

Another Parthian king, Vologases V (c. 191-208 CE), takes the prize for silly haircuts. The large tufts of hair on the sides and top of his head make him look like a French poodle. (This photo is two separate coins, a drachm on the left and a tetradrachm on the right. The drachm is the sillier portrait.)

 

He looks like a Dead Head. Peace man.

 

You can't fool me. That's Beavis!

 

Doesn't the first one look like Conan O'Brian?

 

Here's another guy that is of period for hairstyles.