Ancient coin with greatest creature or animal type density

Hello everyone. Possessing one gorgeous Celtic coin with a few creatures on it, I started to wonder which ancient coin, here on CoinTalk, would have the greatest number of creature/animal types on it, whether or not normalised by the surface area of the coin. As this sounds like an interesting topic, supplementing the recent animal themes appearing on CT, let’s post our coins that may claim the greatest number of creature/animal types on a single side of it (the side you choose to nominate), or just have many creatures on it, for fun. The rules of the competition are as follows.

1. Mystical creatures, known animals, fragments of creatures (i.e. only head etc.) and humans (standing or sitting people, busts etc.) all count, as soon as those were meant to represent a life form, whether real or mythical, alive or dead.

2. You should only count the types/species of creatures, not their quantity. For instance, all the horses of a quadriga reverse would contribute only +1 in the total count (i.e. only horse species). Analogously, if you have multiple people standing, along with one other animal, that would be +1 for the human species, and another +1 for the other animal (total: 2).

3. The total count should reflect only a single side, either the obverse, or the reverse of the coin, even if both sides may feature creatures.

4. While nominating a creature-rich coin, post the picture of both its obverse and reverse, however, clearly indicate in your post which side you nominate for the consideration, as only one side of it can be counted (as per rule 3).

5. Importantly, also write the diameter of the coin in its description, in mm.

6. One way we shall score the coins would be by calculating the <number of all animal/mythical creature/human types> (count) on a single nominated side of it (obverse or reverse) divided by (0.785 x d^2), where d is the diameter of the coin in millimeters (hence, why this information was needed). d^2 is the squared diameter and the whole expression for the denominator is from the area of a circle (A = pi x d^2/4). You do not need to calculate this score, as I can do it for you and reply to your post with the density score, as long as you bring up the coin diameter.

7. We shall also crown the coin with the highest non-normalised number of creature types, where the coin size would not matter, the coin with the count coming from both sides combined, the coin with the greatest creature density, but with creatures > 1. I will bring the statistics and highlight the possible claimants as posts accumulate.

8. The coins with the greatest scores, as expressed by the metrics reflected in 6 and 7, will be the reigning kings on CoinTalk.

 

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Without further ado, here is my nomination below. I nominate its reverse side, which has the count 4 (horse, another type of mythical equine creature, bull head, and a possible snake), and, taking into account the 15.5 mm diameter of the coin, the density score of that side is 0.021 (4/(0.785 x 15.5^2)).


Bronze coin from Ambiani tribe (area of Amiens, northern France). 60-40 BC. 2.16g, 15.5 mm. Obv.: two boars in a back-to-back symmetric arrangement, with a bull head (bucranium) and a serpentine shape (snake?) next to the boar heads, annulets around. Rev.: a stylised horse facing right, with another type of equine mythical creature at the left side, a bull head (bucranium) at the bottom and a serpentine snake-like ornament shape at the right side, annulets around. Ref.: LT 8519, DT 464.

Of course, we are lucky that this is a competition among ancient coins, as I doubt one would ever beat this UK 50 pence from 2011, which, by the way if you look carefully, has even a coronavirus on it (lower right side, above the foot).

 

And the prize is?
Jk... though it always brings more boys to the yard.
Anyway, I must say that I really don’t like the density portion of this contest. I would rather go by ancient barring the most animals. But I do LOVE that Celtic coin of yours, it’s patina and the spirit of this here cointest.
So, my entry (obviously the obverse here) a single animal part on 3 MM:


Ionia. Ephesos
circa 600-550 BC.
1/48 Stater EL fourrée
3mm., 0,15g.
Lion's paw / Incuse punch.
nearly very fine
Karwiese series I / Type 1 (for prototype).

 

Thanks @Ryro for the great entry. Density-wise, your coin's score is 0.142, hard to beat that, so potentially the reigning king!

I have also edited the conditions @Ryro (cannot seem to be able to edit the title though), to equalise the other scoring options too (points 6, 7 and 8), so that we can have various winning categories, not just the density.

Keep the coins coming everyone, as we shall look at those from the viewpoints of all sorts of different metrics (we can look at the counts only, overall count from both sides, density for coins with >1 creature/parts etc.).

Prize-wise, have not thought of any, but may send the above 50p coins with coronavirus, after the emergency situation is lifted (so that it does not accidentally come with an actual coronavirus chilling out on its surface).

 

Very cool! I like the different categories. It is usually, post your largest or smallest coin. Anermals are always awesome! And now we can, hopefully, see a variety!

 

I am going for LAST Prize for a STAMPED Coin.
consider 3-Dimensions: WEIGHT and DIAMETER and THICKNESS

I think the complex supercomputer computations that it takes to analyze a coin is too much for my simple Ancients.



ONE (1) Horse on the reverse of this AE:


Carthage.
Circa 201-175 BC.
Æ 15 Shekels
45 mm. dia. 7.5 mm. thick. 102 gm.
Obv: Wreathed head of Tanit left
Rev: Horse standing right; uraeus above.
Ref: MAA 104 ; SNG Copenhagen 400.
Comment: Original green patina.
Note: The largest Carthaginian coin and likely one of the largest coins struck in antiquity




Now I am going to go eat some PIE.

 

Nevertheless @Alegandron :
count on the nominated side - 1;
total count from both sides - 2;
density on the nominated side - 0.00063;
density accounting for both sides (<total count> / <double the surface area>) - 0.00063.

Potentially, here we have another record, of the lowest density (in 2D ); and an entry that may inspire a few other metrics too (besides freezing my supercomputer).

P.S. By the way, I actually use computing clusters, like the one in the photo you brought, in my research. Luckily, can still access those remotely .

 

This is among the largest coins in my collection and it has two animals. It's not going to win, but I like it nonetheless. It has a fascinating reverse inscription, though!



Trajan Decius. AD 249-251.
Roman provincial Æ 32.5 mm, 18.74 g, 6 h.
Cilicia, Tarsus, AD 249-251.
Obv: ΑV ΚΑΙ Γ ΜЄϹ ΚVΙΝ ΔЄΚΙΟϹ ΤΡΑΙΑΝΟϹ, Π Π, radiate, draped, and cuirassed bust right.
Rev: ΤΑΡϹΟV ΜΗΤΡΟΠΟΛЄΩϹ Γ Β, Α Μ Κ. Artemis standing right, drawing arrow from quiver and holding bow and arrow; at feet on either side, deer standing left and dog running right with raised paws, head left.
Refs: RPC 1346; SNG Levante 1156 ; SNG France 1754; SNG von Aulock 6065; SNG Cop 33; Ziegler 808.16.33; Lindgren III, 926.

 

I think you should factor in mass. You were insistent for diameter, but ALSO its MASS really defines a coin...

 

Thanks @Roman Collector! Since we thought to count humans too (rule 1), it actually has 3 types of creatures in its reverse. Hence, bookkeeping-wise:

type count on the nominated reverse - 3;
total type count from both sides - 3 (human bust on the obverse is not double counted, as there is a human species already counted from the reverse);
density on the nominated side - 0.0036;
density accounting for both sides (<total count> / <double the surface area>) - 0.0018.

 

We surely can, but that would mean that the mass-wise winner should be the coin that uses the least amount of metal (is the lightest) to portray as many creature types as possible.

 

I'm okay with the above two. But, surely extra creatures on the other side would be good, too.

This gives four times the score to a coin with an identical design but half the diameter. I think most collectors would prefer the larger coin. So, I object to that method of scoring.



This coins has four species on the reverse: crab, eel, octopus, and conch, plus two more on the obverse, eagle and fish.

Would it be better if it were smaller? I don't think so.

Sicily, Akragas (Agrigentum) c. 420-406
27 mm. 23.84 grams.
Hoover Sicily 134.
Sear Greek I 1022. SNG Morcom 520. SNG ANS Sicily 1030.

 

Yes, but as my first post stated, I want the LAST place prize. Otherwise, there is no reason to play! I do not need a consolation prize... SOMEONE has to place last...

 

Always liked that coin, Warren!

Mine has a fly to spoil the Crab-Boil!


Sicily Akragas
AE Onkia
1.6micron, 0.000038g
425-406 BCE
Eagle, fish, fly -
Crab, conch
SNG ANS 1062 var

 

You are really in trouble calling a goddess a human. Artemis is not pleased. You'll be lucky if you don't suffer Actaeon's fate!

 

Thanks @Valentinian, this coin is a strong entry indeed, potentially winning in one or two categories. As I corrected the winning conditions, there will be multiple categories, and density will not be the only metric we use. As for the preliminary parameters of your coin:

type count on the nominated reverse - 4;
total type count from both sides - 6;
density on the nominated side - 0.0070;
density accounting for both sides (<total count> / <double the surface area>) - 0.0052.

So far, the coin shares the current lead with another coin through one of the metrics, is the sole lead through the second metric, and is behind through the other two.

 

It won't beat the UK 50 pence, but here goes...

SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS
AR Denarius. 3.66g, 20.4mm. Rome mint, AD 202. RIC 274; RSC 253. O: SEVERVS PIVS AVG, laureate head right. R: LAETITIA above, TEMPORVM below, ship with mast and sail in center of circus; above, four horse quadrigae driven left; below, ostrich, lion, zebra, bear and stag right, bull butting left, bear right, head left.

 

Nice one zumbly. Here's the matching Caracalla along with Curtis Clay's notes. Looks like the reverses are die matched!



ANTONINVS PIVS AVG
Laureate head of Caracalla right

LAETITIA TEMPORVM
The spina of the Circus Maximus decorated as a ship facing l., with the turning posts at its prow and stern, a sail mounted on the central obelisk, and the spina's other monuments visible in between; above the ship, four quadrigas racing l.; below, seven animals: an ostrich at l. and bear at r.; between them a lion and a lioness chasing a wild ass and a panther attacking a bison.

Rome 206 AD

3.34g

Ex-Londinium coins, Ex Professor K.D. White with original envelope.

Sear 6813, RIC 157, BMCRE 257, CSS 793

Very rare! Only 2 examples in the Reka Devnia hoard

Better in hand

Notes by Curtis Clay:

This famous type commemorates the chariot races and animal hunt that took place on the seventh and final day of Severus' Saecular Games in 204 AD, as described in the inscriptional acts of those games which were found in Rome in the 1870s and 1930s. According to the acts, after three days of sacrifices and three days of honorary stage shows, Severus and Caracalla held circus games on the seventh day, consisting of chariot races and then a hunt of 700 beasts, 100 each of "lions, lionesses, panthers, bears, bisons, wild asses, ostriches". Dio Cassius describes the same hunt, adding the detail that the cage from which the animals were discharged was formed like a boat: "The entire receptacle in the theater had been fashioned in the shape of a boat and was capable of receiving or discharging four hundred beasts at once; and then, as it suddenly fell apart, there came rushing forth bears, lionesses, panthers, lions, ostriches, wild asses, bisons, so that 700 beasts in all, both wild and domesticated, at one and the same time were seen running about and were slaughtered. For to correspond with the duration of the festival, which lasted seven days, the number of the animals was also seven times one hundred." In Dio's text this passage follows directly on his account of Severus' Decennalian Games in 202 AD, causing scholars to accuse Dio of misdating the hunt or to postulate that similar hunts of 700 animals were held both in 202 and in 204. But the true explanation, in my opinion, is that Dio's Byzantine epitimator Xiphilinus, on whom we are dependent for this section of Dio's text, has simply jumped without warning or transition from Dio's description of the Decennalian Games of 202 to his description of the circus spectacle concluding the Saecular Games of 204. This hypothesis easily explains why Dio's text as we have it makes no mention of the Saecular Games themselves or of any event of 203: Xiphilinus omitted this whole section of Dio's history! The seven kinds of animals named by both Dio and the inscriptional acts are also depicted in the coin type: on good specimens, especially the aureus BM pl. 34.4, the ostrich and the bear are clear, the lion has a mane, the ass has long ears, the bison has horns and a hump. Two large felines remain, of which we may suppose that the one accompanying the lion is the lioness and the one attacking the bison is the panther. The animals are named somewhat differently in Cohen, BMC, and other numismatic works: though numismatists have long cited Dio's text to explain the coin type, no one previously seems to have posed the question whether the seven animals in the lower part of the type might not be the same seven that Dio and now the inscriptional acts too name! These circus games with the ship and 700 animals were held in 204 AD, but the coin type commemorating them did not appear until two years later: on aurei of Septimius the type is die linked to a dated type of 206 AD, and for Caracalla the type passes from a draped and cuirassed obverse type on the aureus to the "head only" type on his denarii, a transition that took place in 206 AD according to his dated coins.

 

Wow, Jay, I do believe you’re right. We’re reverse die buddies! How cool is that, and even cooler that the obverse is not of the same ruler. Great coin, btw.

 

Only Z's coin would have the zebra. At this scale, it would be hard to tell stripes from scratches anyway.