“Victory” Nero coins. Nero portrait facing right RIC Vol. I, NERO, As, Lugdunum, No. 543 Nero portrait facing left RIC Vol. I, NERO, As, Lugdunum, No. 544 Nero portrait facing right BMCRE, Vol. I, NERO, As, Rome, No. 242 Please post your examples.
Great coins! I don't have any Nero with a walking Victory but I do have a Trajan with a walking Victory. However, it is absolute trash. I won't bother posting it and sullying the rest of the thread . You can barely make out that it is Victory on the reverse. It was my first Victory coin though, and gave me my love for all things Victory/Nike.
Here are four asses of Nero with Victory holding globe reverse and also a dupondius with a victory reverse.
Nero, Ruled 54-68 AD AE As, Struck 65 AD, Rome mint Obverse: NERO CAESAR AVG GERM IMP, Laureate head of Nero right. Reverse: Victory alighting left, wings spread holding shield inscribed SPQR, S-C across field. References: RIC I 312, Sear 1976 Nero, AE Dupondius Struck 62-68 AD, Lugdunum (Lyon) Mint Obverse: NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GER P M TR P IMP P, Head of Nero, laureate, left; small globe at point of neck. Reverse: VICTORIA AVGVSTI, Victory walking left, holding wreath in right hand and palm in left, S-C in fields, II in exergue. References: RIC I 410; Lyon 81; BMCRE 350; Cohen 346 Size: 29mm, 14.84g Is it similar to this? (Is that a Nerva schnoz?) Trajan, Ruled 98-117 AD AE As, Struck 99-100 AD Obverse: IMP CAES NERVA TRAIAN AVG GERM P M, Head of Trajan, laureate, right. Reverse: TR POT COS III P P, Victory, draped, advancing left, holding shield inscribed SPQR in right hand and palm in left, S-C across field. References: RIC II Trajan 417 I also have this restoration Augustus (my avatar) with similar reverse... Divus Augustus, Died 14 AD AE As, Restoration Issue, Struck under Titus 80-81 AD, Rome Mint Obverse: DIVVS AVGVSTVS PATER, radiate head left. Reverse: IMP T VESP – AVG REST, Victory alighting left, holding shield inscribed SP/QR, S-C across fields. References: RIC Titus 446
James, I am glad to see you are bursting forth from your earlier coin-acquisition limits. Keep 'em coming, I say. Nice coins in this thread. This one not so much: I recently picked up a "bargain" dupondius of Nero with Victory walking. This was my first experience with the "II" denominational markings on a dupondius. I had no idea! Attribution for this was difficult and not entirely resolved to my satisfaction. Lately I've been putting "attribution notes" on the backs of my flips so a future me can see what the heck I was thinking when I originally worked up the coin. So here's a beginner's observation that I had to figure out the hard way: there appears to be a Victory "walking" and a Victory "flying" (or "alighting") description for these. The "walking" version has a ground line (like mine) whereas flying/alighting has no ground line. At least that is what I seemed to be finding when I was working on this. I spot 2 for sure "walking" versions above: Justin Lee's and Octavius's. The rest are flying or "alighting." Nero Æ Dupondius (c. 64-67 A.D.) Lugdunum Mint NERO CLAVD CAESAR AVG GER P M TR P IMP P P, Radiate head right, globe at point of bust /VICTORIA AVGVSTI, Victory advancing (walking) left, holding wreath and palm branch; II in exergue (below ground line). RIC I 379; WCN 495. (12.38 grams / 28 mm) Attribution Note: Many varieties of this type: Obv.: Radiate (not laureate) bust right, CLAVD and GER (no M), two P's at end of legend. Globe at tip of bust. Rev.: Victory walking (not flying) left (see ground line below feet, above II)
Excellent post, Mike! I knew someone was going to bring me to task for describing Victory as “walking” rather than “flying” - fair enough, Mike. I defer to your descriptions. Most of the “Victories” seem to be walking rather than flying to me - but they do have wings and I am not stubborn about it. I really like your “alighting”, Mike - I am going to use that if you do not mind. Added: I changed the thread title.
Well, I actually got "alighting" from Justin Lee's description above - I wish I could take credit for it - it is a nice word - almost a combination of flying and walking. As for the "walking/flying" distinction, I am just guessing, based on OCRE and Wildwinds, auction, etc. descriptions. The ground line is the only reason I called mine "walking." Your examples don't seem to have ground lines, so I'd call 'em flying. But I'm not sure if there is any "official" distinction between the two.
I agree, Mike, I don’t want to be pedantic about this - I just wanted to try and describe the reverses better. I see now that Justin did use “alighting” first in his post - kudos to him!
Of course the descriptions of Victory we are using here are our own, but we Ancient coin collectors do that quite often - and I think it enriches our discussions. It seems to me that the early issues of these “Victory” reverse coins from the Rome mint are more subdued in the portraiture, titulature legends and depictions of Victory than the more flamboyant Lugdunum issues. Regarding the three coins I posted (also those posted by by Justin Lee): The titulature on the earliest Rome mint issues is simply IMP CAESAR AVG GERM IMP (BMCRE, vol. I, No. 232/233) and Victory is usually rather static. The Lugdunum issue coins (BMCRE, vol. I, No’s. 543/544) depict Nero with his famous elaborate curly “hair-do’s”, more extensive titulature with IMP as a Praenomen and more dramatic, and active, “Victories”. The magnificent coins posted by @octavius also illustrate these attributes. BTW, the shield that Victory carries always bears the legend SPQR, but the inscription was very lightly rendered and so wore off with normal coin handling and is seldom clearly visible on surviving coins. His coins are remarkable in that SPQR is readable on all of them!