Featured Animal Farm

..hehe.....don't feel lonely..i'd never heard of the term pachyderm till i got here..

 

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Great idea for a thread! Coins with animals on them are neat. Too bad my favorite animal, the common domesticated cat, is missing. Does a coin with the common kitty exist?
I'm not sure what would make an animal on a coin scarce/rare. Thats also quite difficult to determine, i guess. For example: wolf is quite common on Roman coins, if you take into account late roman bronzes like the one below. Do you take into account all ancient coins? Or only, for example, Roman provincial? And would you also take into account the images of moneyers? (Excusez-moi in case I misunderstand your intention )
I also wouldn't consider raven's or ibis/hippo rare. They are more or less pretty available via a coin of Vitellius resp. the Aegyptos/Nilus travel coin of Hadrian mentioned above.
Last comment from me, the more or less common coins are often difficult to obtain, if you take into consideration price. This might be relevant for new collectors as well, although its not my intention to start a price list of course An example: many coins of Caesar with the elephant/snake available, they're just quite expensive!

 

I agree. Wolves should be considered common given the many Romulus/Remus types from both the Republican and Imperial periods. And I think they should be classified separately from dogs/hounds, since there's very rarely, if ever, a question as to which one is depicted. I suspect that there might actually be more different types depicting wolves than depicting dogs. I do wonder, though, if it ever occurred to anyone in the ancient world that dogs and wolves had to be related?

 

Especially in India, "elephant bells" were used well into the 19th century to warn pedestrians of the approach of an elephant – I guess you better get out of the way as fast as you can when such a sizeable beast wants to pass...

Maybe the elephant bells found on ancient coins had a similar function? This is pure speculation, but it would intuitively make sense to me.

 

Stepping on a WOLF's HEAD!

I posted this before, but there are not too many varieties out there with just the HEAD...

In this case, I postulate that this was a snipe at Rome by an Ex-Marsic Confederation family...

Just a Wolf's HEAD:


Roman Republic
Egnatius Maxsumus 76 BCE
Bust Libertas pileus behind-
Roma and Venus standing cupid on shoulder - Roma's foot on Wolf's Head at their feet
Sear 326 Craw 391-3

Cool story, very truncated: The moneyer's family were originally a plebeian family of equestrian rank and were Samnites (had fought with Rome in THREE Samnite Wars (343–341 BCE, 326–304 BCE, and 298–290 BCE). After the Social War (91-88 BCE, with the Samnites holding out to 87 BCE), a part of the family moved to Rome, with a couple of them becoming Senators. However, one of the Senators was expelled, and also disowned his Senator Son. "No one has a saisfactory reason for this scene..." Hmmm... I wonder; this guy came from a Rebel Family (Samnites), who were virtually exterminated after the Social War by Sulla. I think Roma stepping on a Wolf's severed head might say something... LOL, GO SAMNIUM

 

Now, what if he meant more ELEPHANT BELL!




This one is an INDIAN Elephant (not African from Carthage), and has the Bell and Clapper...

ETRURIA, Arretium (?).
The Chiana Valley.
Circa 208-207 BC.
Æ Quartunica .
Head of African right; monogram to left /
Indian elephant standing right, bell around neck; monogram below.
HN Italy 69; SNG ANS 41 (same obv. die); SNG Copenhagen 48 var. (no monogram on obv.). rare.

This enigmatic issue has been much discussed. It was Sestini in 1816 who first indicated their area of circulation in and around the Chiana (Clanis) valley and lake Trasimeno, dominated by the cities of Arezzo, Chiusi and Cortona. The traditional attribution of the issue to 217 BC, as representing the propaganda of Hannibal’s approach to Etruria, was modified by Robinson (op. cit.), who saw it as a provocative seditious type of Arretium, which was in a state of high tension with Rome in 209/8, in the hoped for arrival of Hasdrubal from Spain with reinforcements. However, the reverse depicts an Indian rather than African elephant with a bell around its neck reminiscent of the elephant/saw aes signatum issue (Crawford 9/1) of about 250-240 BC and associated with the battle of Maleventum (soon to be called Beneventum) in 275 BC when the captured elephants of Pyrrhus were brought to Rome in triumph. A similar Indian elephant is also depicted as a symbol on the Tarantine nomos issue (Vlasto 710-712), indicating the presence of Pyrrhus in the city in 282-276. The Barcid coinage of New Carthage (Villaronga CNH, pg. 65, 12-15) and that of Hannibal in Sicily (SNG Cop. 382) clearly depict African elephants belonging to the elephant corps from about 220 BC. As Maria Baglione points out in "Su alcune parallele di bronzo coniato," Atti Napoli 1975, pg.153-180, the African/elephant issue shares control marks with other cast and struck Etruscan coins of the region, she quotes Panvini Rosati in ‘ Annuario dell’accademia Etrusca di Cortona XII’, 1964, pg. 167ff., who suggests the type is to be seen as a moneyer’s badge or commemorative issue in the style of Caesar’s elephant/sacrificial implements issue of 49/48 BC (Crawford 443/1). The elephant, an attribute of Mercury/Turms, is an emblem of wisdom and is also a symbol of strength and of the overcoming of evil

 

Thanks everyone on the answers to the "bell" question.

 

My wife is from Thailand, and I know Indian elephants fairly well, and the differences between them and African. Sure looks like an African elephant to me. Indian ones have a much more distinctive hump, and smaller ears.

 

..i con'cur'!..my last purchase of last year..got it on X-mas eve....heavily influenced by @Alegandron on this buy.. Roman Republic Antestius denarius 146 BC..Roma with Dog obverse, Dioscuri twins riding reverse 18mm 3.82gms

 

haha! one o my favorite SNL skits with one o me favorite all time actors!

 

Well that is interesting. Thank you. They really made a case it was for Pyrrhus and his Indian Elephants rather than Hannibal with his African Elephants. I felt the ears were smaller, which made them Indian. This is not my research, rather what was given to me, and what I have read in other attributes.

BTW, Thailand is one of my favorite Countries.

 

LOL, uh-oh. I feel like Typhoid Mary...

 

,,,but inna good way

 

...,but inna good way

 

Well, I can kinda say that. I had Typhus when I was a kid. That was Hell-on-Earth.

 

.

 

Actually, ditto.

 

..yikes!....man that hadda be ruff...glad you're still amongst us Brian!..

 

Yup, thank you, and it was terrible. I was speaking to my mother about it the other day. I remember telling her when I was deep into the fevers, that I felt like I was walking on the ceiling. I was probly 12 yo. Survived.

 

..well, doesn't sound like you were...