When was the last appearance of a rhinoceros on an ancient coin? I don't have any rhinoceros-themed coins in my own collection, but I'm curious. Here's a coin from CNG's Mail Bid Sale 64 (2003), lot 1031: DOMITIAN. 81-96 AD. Æ Quadrans (2.49 gm). Legend around large S C / Rhinoceros walking left. RIC II 435; Cohen 674. Image and description courtesy of CNG. Please share your rhinoceros coins, other pachyderms, or anything you feel is relevant.
Roman Imperial Trajan Alexandria Egypt AE Dichalkon Laureate hd Right Rhinoceros walking Left LI-Z = yr 17 CE 113-114 12.9mm 1.25g Reference: Emmett 719 var (rhino right) , BMC -, Dattari -, Milne Ex: SteveX6 Collection
The last time a Rhino was on a coin it squeezed a booger right out of Trajan's nose! Jk. Wonderful example! Mine might have been stepped on by a Rhino, as it looks more like an ant eater:
Yeah, only two issuances, 4 varieties. Both issues come facing left or facing right. I love rhinos, and have many of all varieties, (maybe 14 of the two issues total). They are the only instance of a rhino on any ancient coin I have ever seen.
I agree that the Domitian and Trajan, in their several varieties, are the only rhinos on ancient coins. My example of the Domitian quadrans with rhino (variety facing right, with legend beginning at 1:00): And my other favorite (non-elephant) pachyderm, the Otacilia Severa hippo:
Gotta say, I get a real kick out you Ancients folks who get into the animal depictions on this level. With European medieval, pretty much all you get is heraldic; translate, lions /leopards, eagles, more lions, more eagles, blah blah....
In medieval Europe, how many people were there who had actually ever seen a rhino or a hippo, or even an elephant, unless they had traveled outside Europe? It's not as if they could go see them at the Colosseum, and I don't think zoos existed beyond some royal menageries. I know that Charlemagne had an elephant named Abul-Abbas, brought back by his diplomat Isaac the Jew as a gift from the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid. But Charlemagne was special!
Weeell, at the royal level, they did have access to elephants as of the 13th century. Here's a link to a terrific article about the one (!) that Henry III of England got from Frederick II (of Sicily, as well as Germany) --who got it from "the sultan of Babylon"-- along with a couple of later instances in the same reign. https://www.medievalists.net/2013/09/matthew-paris-and-henry-iiis-elephant/ More generally (as Matthew Paris, the chronicler and illustrator, notes in the last instance), there was a huge cultural gap, even within Europe, between the Mediterranean countries and points north. But, No, Uh-uh, where coins were concerned, the Europeans mostly just had a completely different, more minimalist political agenda. And, Yep, had Henry III issued coins with an elephant on them, for instance, as a demonstration of how cool he was to have one, it would've gone sailing over most people's heads. ...And, Yep, at the popular level, some people would probably have thought he was a witch. 'What is this Strange Beast? He's in league with the Devil!'
I don’t know about this. Bestiaries were quite common among the literate which illustrated many of these exotic animals (whether real or fictional, sometimes accurate depictions, sometimes not). I’m sure that probably filtered down to the masses with a vague understanding of them. Heck, Marco Polo mentions the rhinoceros which he calls a unicorn. And while many thought Polo was a liar, they never assumed witchcraft
Sorry,@FitzNigel, I was rapidly switching gears between the literate and pre-literate classes. Many of whom, in northern Europe as of the 13th century no less than the Roman Empire as of the 1st and 2nd, would have been the demographic equivalent of what's left of our middle class. As such, many of them, in either historical context, would have been handling coins on a regular basis. ...In the case of Roman coins which people in the less Mediterranean parts of the empire would have seen, I have to speculate whether something could have been happening, on the level of numismatic propoganda, a little like all the double-entendres there are in, for instance, old Bugs Bunny and Bullwinkle cartoons. They were operative on two levels. ...With the distinction that, of the two hypothesized contexts, preliterates of the 13th century would have been quicker to accuse the issuing authority of witchcraft.
I am envious! I want a Rhino as nice as yours (and in the same light tone) to accompany my Hippo Sestertius:
