T-Bone Tuesday -- VBERITAS edition

Discussion in 'Ancient Coins' started by Roman Collector, Oct 20, 2020.

  1. Roman Collector

    Roman Collector Well-Known Member

    Let's see your coins featuring Uberitas!

    Uberitas personifies agricultural fertility in general. As such, she resembles Abundantia, but is more specifically concerned with agricultural abundance. She resembles Ceres and Annona, but her realm is not limited to grain crops. She holds a marsupium (a pouch or bag often made from a cow's udder) or sometimes a cluster of grapes, and a cornucopiae.

    This particular reverse type under Trebonianus Gallus was limited to the mint in Antioch. The coin demonstrates several features unique to the Antioch mint.

    The obverse inscription on coins of this mint bear the abbreviation P F for Pius Felix.

    Another unique feature of the Antioch mint is that it used dots and Roman numerals to indicate the officina in which each coin was struck, in this case four dots below the bust on the obverse and in the exergue on the reverse.

    Lastly, this coin illustrates the severe debasement of the coins from this mint. Gallus's coins of the Antioch mint average only 18.9% silver, whereas those issued in Rome were less debased (30.9%), with the least debased being the unknown branch mint previously believed to have been Mediolanum (37.9% silver) (Pannekeet, Table 3).

    [​IMG]
    Trebonianus Gallus, AD 251-253.
    Roman AR antoninianus, 5.43 g, 20.1 mm, 6 h.
    Antioch, first series, AD 251-252.
    Obv: IMP C C VIB TREB GALLVS P F AVG, radiate, draped and cuirassed bust, right; •••• below.
    Rev: VBERITAS AVG, Uberitas standing left, holding purse and cornucopiae; •••• in exergue.
    Refs: RIC 92; Cohen 125; RCV 9652; Hunter p. cvi; ERIC II 63.

    ~~~

    Pannekeet, Cornelis GJ. "A Theory on How the Denarius Disappeared and the Debasement of the Antoninianus." Academia.edu, www.academia.edu/3784962/A_theory_on_how_the_denarius_disappeared_and_the_debasement_of_the_antoninianus?auto=download.
     
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  3. ancient coin hunter

    ancient coin hunter 3rd Century Usurper

    Since you mentioned Abundantia here she is...

    Trajan Decius A.D. 249-251
    AR Antoninianus, 4.1 grams, 23 mm
    Rome mint

    Obverse: IMP C M Q TRAJANVS DECIVS AVG, Radiate, draped, and cuirassed bust right

    Reverse: ABVND ANTIA AVG; Abundantia standing right, emptying cornucopiae held in both hands.

    Reference: RIC IVc 10b, p. 121


    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    She actually reminds of pizza as Mama Celeste used to say "Abundanza" on the commercials for Celeste pizza.
     

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  4. Carausius

    Carausius Brother, can you spare a sestertius?

    Hah! What a coincidence, I just posted this Uberitas example on another thread. Ignore the Valerian on right. Actually, this is only two-thirds of a T-Bone. Does that make it an I-Bone? Before you all walk away thinking "Carausius' quality control is really slipping" please note that these were gifted field finds from over 100 years ago.

    20200505_010644.jpg
    20200505_010608.jpg
     
    Last edited: Oct 20, 2020
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  5. Alegandron

    Alegandron "ΤΩΙ ΚΡΑΤΙΣΤΩΙ..." ΜΕΓΑΣ ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΣ, June 323 BCE

    Nice coin, @Roman Collector , nice info.

    Nope, nary a VBERITAS... however, I have ONE ABUNDANTIA

    upload_2020-10-20_11-11-43.png
    RI Gallienus 253-268 CE Ant Abundantia S-secunda
     
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  6. DonnaML

    DonnaML Well-Known Member

    I have one Uberitas -- not from Trebonianus Gallus, but from Trajan Decius, the emperor he replaced. It was the first Roman Imperial coin I ever bought as an adult, at a coin show sometime in the mid- or late 1980s.

    Trajan Decius AR Antoninianus, 249-251 AD. Obv. Radiate bust right, draped and cuirassed, IMP C M Q TRAIANVS DECIVS AVG/ Rev. Uberitas stdg. left, holding purse and cornucopiae, VBERITAS AVG. RIC IV-3 28b, RSC IV 105, Sear RCV III 9384. 23 mm., 4.9 g.

    Trajan Decius O3 .jpg

    Trajan Decius Reverse - VBERITAS.jpg
     
  7. Marsyas Mike

    Marsyas Mike Well-Known Member

    Keeping it in the family, a Volusian:

    Volusian - Antioch Ant. UBERITAS (2).JPG

    Volusian - Æ Antoninianus
    (251-253 A.D.)
    Antioch Mint - Officina 4

    IMP C V AF GAL VEND VOLVSIANO AVG, radiate, draped bust right 4 dots below/
    VDERITAS (misspelt or filled-in B) AVG, Uberitas standing left w/ purse and cornucopiae, 4 dots below.
    (3.10 grams / 25 mm)
     
  8. Sulla80

    Sulla80 Well-Known Member

    @Roman Collector, I was about to post my own VBERTAS when I noticed this thread - it took me a month to find it. There are a some deities and virtues for which I have many coins - Salus probably tops my list across Republican and Imperial coins. Ubertas/Uberitas is one of those that doesn't show up often in my collection - maybe because this deity or virtue, didn't appear until the reign of Trajan Decius and I don't stray that far into the CE very often...
    Uberitas.jpg
    Abundance with oversized horn of plenty and a bulging purse, or perhaps...
    [​IMG]

    Tacitus Uberitas.jpg
    Tacitus, 275-276, Antoninianus, Rome, AD 276
    Obv: IMP C M CL TACITVS AVG, Radiate, draped and cuirassed bust of Tacitus to right
    Rev: VBERTAS AVG / XXIЄ, Uberitas standing left, holding purse in her right hand and cornucopiae with her left
    Ref: RIC V Tacitus 95
     
    Last edited: Nov 20, 2020
  9. Sulla80

    Sulla80 Well-Known Member

    I found myself fumbling between Uberitas and Ubertas in my previous post, and clearly the more usual form on coins is Uberitas (700 hits on ACSearch vs. 33), but ubertas shows up in the Latin dictionary and Uberitas does not...
    ubertas, ubertatis, noun, declension: 3rd declension, gender: feminine
    Definitions:
    - abundance, plenty
    - fruitfulness, fertility

    Is Uberitas the virtue/goddess? and Ubertas the latin noun? are there other words that work this way: I haven't seen Libertas turn into Liberitas - but surprisingly I did find 20 coins with Liberitas in ACSearch....anyone know more about this?
     
    Last edited: Nov 20, 2020
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  10. Roman Collector

    Roman Collector Well-Known Member

    That's what happens when there are no dictionaries to standardize orthography and all words are spelled phonetically.
     
  11. Sulla80

    Sulla80 Well-Known Member

    I'm not completely convinced that this is the full story - the Rome mint especially is pretty consistent - we don't see TRAIAN or HADRIAN or VESPASIAN or TACITUS spelled a lot of ways....this is more than one-off, for TACITVS it is fairly consistently (37/37 in ACSesarch) VBERTAS for Trajan Decius pretty consistently (327/327 in ACSearch) VBERITAS (?)
     
    Last edited: Nov 20, 2020
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