Featured Nikopolis ad Istrum

@TIF First and foremost, those are both beautiful coins. Again I am tempted to leave my focus behind and just start adding more coins like yours here.

Secondly, I would say I wandered into Nikopolis looking for coins of Septimius Severus as he/Julia Domna are my main focus or at least in the second century they are my main focus. I came across a coin or two at a show and once I started to figure out how to read the Greek and understand titles, consular legate names and what not I then started adding coins that were issued by SSev/JD. The other compelling factor is affordability. If you are buy bronze that isn’t an especially rare piece, prices are fairly low. Much lower than for comparable grade sestertii for example. Yet you can still get a 27mm Provincial which has plenty of room for detail and artistic expression. The Herakles and Serapis issues were sought out as was the river god issue.

 

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Wonderful coins..I like the set with the crescent and three stars.I wonder how they lived ,and what that coin has been spent on??

 

http://www.akropoliscoins.com/page8.html
For those new to consular legates, the above is a good resource. The page is a service of a coin dealer/friend of mine who has some very expensive items we don't see everyday. I became aware of Provincials through seeing his coins and believed for several years that I could not afford to collect them. The fact is that there are Provincials in all price brackets.

 

That webpage is awesome... so many great coins. When I win the lotto...

 

Another page with the names and dates of governors and legates on coins of Moesia is at Forum:
http://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=moesia

Wildwinds has this page:
http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/moushmov/legates.html

 

It's not much to look at... but I've always liked this little (16mm) Julia Domna because of the Kantharos (two-handled jug/cup) on the reverse.

Julia Domna AE17 of Nikopolis ad Istrum. IOVLIA DOMNA CEB, draped bust right / NIKOPOLITWN PROC ICTRON, Kantharos (two-handled cup). Varbanov 2869; Moushmov 1031; AMNG 1484

And the same story with this one... not in the best shape but I've always liked the city gate on the reverse... I've never had time to see if this structure still exists in ruin. Anyone know?

Elagabalus AE21 of Nikopolis ad Istrum. AV K M AVP ANTΩNINOC, radiate draped bust right / NIKOPOLITWN PROC ICTPON, city gate with pointed arch and two flat towers. Varbanov 3827

 

@dougsmit and @Valentinian Thank you both for the links to the pages of legates. Doug has shared the one page before and I am happy to see the dates of service listed on the Forvm page. I will be updating my coin holders appropriately today I think. I was kind of sad that I had not seen any date of issuance information on WW or other places that listed attribution numbers and other information.

@Orange Julius I can see why you like both of those pieces, worn or not. They are great! The kantharos certainly has its charm and I was already a sucker for Julia Domna. The fort on the Elagabalus piece would have sucked me in too if I was offered the coin.

 

Great thread @nicholasz219! I myself am recently focusing on the provincial coinage from Thrace and Moesia Inferior - interesting designs and (in general) affordable prices which makes it possible to acquire very well preserved coins. Here are some of mine:


Æ27, 11,11 g.
Consular Legate - Aurelius Gallus
Obv.: AV K Λ CEΠ CEVHPOC Π
Laureate head right.
Rev.: VП AVP ГAΛΛOV NIKOПO ПROC I
Eagle with wings spread, standing on a globe, holding wreath in its beak.



Septimius Severus, Marcianopolis Mint, Moushmov 397
Æ18, 3,65 g., AD 193 - 211
Obv.: AV K Λ CEΠТ CEVHPOC
Laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right.
Rev.: MAΡKIAN-OΠOΛITΩN
Herakles standing left, strangling the Nemean lion.




Caracalla, AD 198 – 217
Æ18, 2,68 g., Nikopolis ad Istrum Mint
Moushmov 1112cf
Obv.: AV K M A ANTΩNIN
Laureate, draped bust right.
Rev.: NIKOПOΛITΩN ПPOC I
Legend around empty laurel wreath.


Æ16, 2,51 g.,
Obv.: M AV KAI ANTΩNINO
Bare-headed, draped bust of young Caracalla right.
Rev.: NIKOПOΛIT ПPOC ICTP
Eagle standing left, head right with wreath in its beak.



Caracalla, AD 198 – 217
Nikopolis ad Istrum Mint
Consular Legate - Flavius Ulpianus
Æ28, 12,52 g., Varbanov 3137
Obv.: AV K M AV ANTΩNEINOC
Laureate, draped bust right.
Rev.: V ΦΛ OVΛΠIAN NIKOΠOΛIT ΠPOCIC
Tyche standing left holding rudder and cornucopia.

 

Thanks for all this. From the links to consular legates I learned that none of these legates is identifiable with the few known authors of their time: Statius, Quintilianus or Ulpianus. Possibly they were family, but that's all.
There is however a coin issued in Smyrna (about 77-79 AD) by the Roman poet Silius Italicus, when he was proconsul in Asia. I would like to acquire that coin very much (to be able to put it on his printed book), but it is very rare.

 

There are a number of architectural types from Nicopolis. This one came from the recent Triskeles auction associated with vcoins.


The auction image was much greener. With the coin in hand, I digitally altered the photo to look more like it really is, dark brown.
AVK OΠΠEΛ CE-VH MAKPINOC (Autok[rater] Opel[ius] Seve[rus] Macrinus)
VΠ AΓPIΠΠA NIKOΠOΛITΩN ΠPO-CICTPΩ (Consular Legate, Agrippa, of Nikopolis, First city of CICTPΩ [I don't know how to translate that last part. Can you help?]

Moesia Inferior, Nicopolis ad Istrum. Macrinus. A.D. 217-218. Æ (27 mm, 11.79 g, 12 h). Marcus Agrippa, consular legate. Laureate head of Macrinus right / City walls with closed gate and three towers. Hristova & Jekov 8.23.46.3; cf. Varbanov 3383. Brown patina. Lindgren II --. Lindgren III --. BMC Thrace --.

Price and Trell, Coins and their Cities, is the book that discusses architectural types from the provinces and their conventions. One important artistic convention is that "above" often means "behind". So, here we see a gate and two towers at either side with a third tower, probably not in the middle, rather somewhere else on the wall, maybe even representative of additional towers on the far side of the city.

Price and Trell has 522 enlarged photographs, many in color, most of only the one side, of walls, temples, arches, and other architecturally related types, including some Roman imperial types. It also has a long list of all cites except Rome and all their architectural types. Many are photographed, but not all. This one is type 58. It is not photographed, but a very similar reverse type from Augusta Traiana is. The book is not concerned with obverses, so if a reverse type was issued by more than one ruler you will just see its reverse once.

If you like provincial coins and architectural types, you need Price and Trell.

 

Thanks, @Valentinian! I now have to look for Price and Trell as well!

 

Dear Valentinian!

May I help you? The rev. legend is extended
VP = VPATEVONTOC = (struck) when he was legatus Augusti pro praetore
NIKOPOLITWN = (issued by the) people of Nikopolis
PROC ICTRW = at the river Ictros

Best regards
Jochen (Co-Autor of Hristova/Hoeft/Jekov, Coinage of Nikopolis, 2018)

 

@Jochen, welcome on this lively forum! It is here on CoinTalk that I really learned to love Provincial Roman coinage and understand it better.

 

Welcome to CT @Jochen, I have spent many an hour drooling over your Macrinus provincials on FAC.

 

TIF, this scene has been described by some as the "Foundation of Athens" scene, where Erichthonios, in the form of a serpent, is entwined around the olive tree, which he gifted to the Athenians. You can read about Erichthonios here:
https://search.aol.com/aol/search?q=Erichthonios&s_it=loki-tb-sb

 

You certainly did help. Thank you!
Dividing it "PROC ICTRW" makes Istros (= Danube) clear. My division
"PRO CICTRW" concealed it.

 

Where the letters break can get creative. An enjoyable sidelight of these coins is watching how the die cutters dealt with fitting the letters into the space available. It seemed there were no rules. Many just abbreviated by stopping when they ran out of space. Others put the surplus in the fields as here with the last two letters flanking the bust of Serapis (this die reversed the denomination E and the bust direction from the usual but cut the encircling letters normally).


This Gordian III ran out of room and put the C tiny in exergue before stacking the river name in the field. There would have been more remainders had the cutter not used several ligate letters around the edge.


This Philip II did a two letter paired stack before ending with a ligate pair.


Continuing letters in exergue might require more than one line. On this Gordian III, the first line starts just right of the short groundline. The cutter realized he needed a lot of extra space and could not afford to waste any space.


My favorite oddball is the Septimius assarion that ended the circle with ΠΡΟ and continued in exergue. Usually they would have started the exergial letters at the left but here the CIC is either inverted from the right as if it were continuing the circle but flipped the TPO to avoid it being upside down or reversed (boustrophedon) the entire exergue to read right to left with all letters bottom down. You can not tell top from bottom on CIC.

A person could assemble a specialize collection of these coins based solely on variations of letter placement. I have not sought these out but do admit that I have bought a few coins that I happened upon just because of the letters. Call it an 'accidental specialty'???

Sorry, my examples included a couple not from Nikopolis.

 

@Jochen Thank you for jumping into the thread!

@dougsmit Your coins are always welcome in my threads. Hopefully I’ll have some more threads here shortly.