Two new Roman Egyptian coins: one ex. Dattari, and one possibly unpublished

Thanks, @TIF! If you don't mind my asking, what was your other target in the Naville auction?

Your second Isis-Thermouthis (or Demeter-headed uraeus) is fantastic, but no, I wasn't aware of it so I didn't bid on it. May I ask which auction it was in? I gather the Demeter theory is based on the fact that there's a torch rather than a sistrum in her coils? I look forward to your write-up, and all the others to come!

Between you, me, and the lamp post, I'm rather flabbergasted, given the large number of Roman Alexandrian coins in the Naville auction, and my assumption that they would have an "expert" in that subject area to write their catalog descriptions, that they were so wrong in almost every way in describing the tessera. I guess that can happen when one has to identify the figures from scratch without a published source to rely upon. But the idea, for example, that an obvious crook and flail could somehow be seen as two Greek letters across the fields, is astonishing.

 

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As an outsider (non collector of Roman coins) my immediate question is whether the second coin is really a coin and not some other kind of artifact?

I don't think a Phoenix is shown in an ancient Greek coin. But I do have an Olympic medal from the first modern Olympic games in Athens 1896. The phoenix resurrecting symbolizes the revival of the Olympic games.

 

Well, if it's really a tessera, then by definition it's not a "coin." To use modern terminology, it would be considered exonumia.

 

Very cool! Here's my example of the phoenix type, from the earlier minting cycle (Year 2 = 138/9 AD as denoted by LB, instead of Year 6 = 142/3 AD, as denoted by LS):

 

Further thanks for your allowing me to "see" Harpocrates as a left-facing crowned bust, seen in profile, with his left arm and forefinger held up to his mouth:



So here is my newly-revised description of the tessera, without the footnotes:



Anonymous, unpublished, AE[?] Tessera, 2nd Century AD[?], Alexandria, Egypt Mint. Obv. Crowned Bust of Nilus left, with cornucopiae behind and, in front, bust of Harpocrates [infant Horus], seen in profile, facing left, wearing skhent crown, with left arm and forefinger held up to mouth / Rev. On left, Serpent Uraeus [sacred cobra, worn by deities and pharaohs] with human head of Isis (as Isis-Thermouthis), crowned with solar disk and horns, standing facing, with coils enfolding sistrum upright to left*; on right, Osiris (mummiform) wearing Atef crown above horns, standing facing with arms crossed over chest holding crook and flail.** 15.60 mm., 2.52 g. Purchased from Naville Numismatics Auction 72 (27 Mar 2022), Lot 305; ex. “private British collection.”

There's a reason I decided to omit the word "Canopus" in describing the second figure on the reverse: I have never seen a Canopus that has arms, whether holding a crook and flail or otherwise. A Canopus is a jar (or, technically, by the time of their numismatic portrayals, an imitation jar), and jars don't have arms! Nor have I seen any Canopi that are mummiform, as this figure appears to be. Finally, Canopus jars are usually more "jar-shaped," i.e., fatter. This figure is shaped more like one of the mummiform Ptah-Sokar-Osiris figures, except that those are in profile and hold Ptah's jackal-headed scepter rather than the crook and flail. So that's why I described the figure as above.

Finally, does everyone agree that this tessera seems to be unpublished? (Unless it's somewhere in one of the additional Dattari-Savio plates.) I have had no luck trying to search for it on RPC Online, even under "uncertain reign," given the inability to search specifically for tesserae. Is it worth submitting it to RPC so they can consider adding it to their database? Does anyone know how to do that?

 

I may be misinterpreting that you're saying that this isn't a phoenix, but if so: the reason that this is normally called a phoenix is was minted at the end of the sothic cycle (1461 years on the egyptian calendar). The legend around it also indicates 'eternity'. If I recall correctly Nick Vaneerdewegh's "The Egyptian "Zodiac coins" of Antoninus Pius and the Sothic Cycle" discusses this, but I seem to have lost my copy of the pdf.

 

I always learn so much from your detailed writeups Thanks for sharing your treasures and expertize with us!
John

 

I don't think he was saying that that isn't a phoenix on my coin; rather, that he doesn't know of any ancient Greek coins depicting a phoenix. My coin, despite the Greek inscription, is generally referred to as a "Roman Provincial" rather than a "Greek" coin. (The old term, "Greek Imperial," is hardly ever used anymore.)

 

Donna, what great additions to your collection! Many coingrats, and thank you for another great write up.
I think it’s entirely possible that we both got the «greatest prize» at an auction where I believe several bidders felt they got a great prize, because it was simply a pretty great auction.

I was watching several lots, but was very determined to get this one:

Troas, Abydos

Tetradrachm in name and types of Lysimachus II century BC.

Obverse: Diademed head of the deified Alexander r., with horn of Ammon.

Reverse: Athena Nikephoros seated l., l. arm resting on shield, transverse spear in background; cornucopia in l. field and monogram in inner l. field. In exergue, eagle standing r. within A-BY, and monogram.

Reference: cf. Mattingly, "The Ma'aret en-Num'an Hoard" in Essays Carson-Jenkins, 461 (for type).

Size: 33.0mm Weight: 14.81g Conservation: Toned, rough surface and Very Fine.

The auction featured several of that type, and also tets from Ilium, Troas. Both types are pretty rare, and I have so far little luck googling my coin. I like that.

I have tried my best to avoid the addiction of Alexandrian tets, but that Sunday brought me 3. They were too tempting, and I felt they all were really good buys. So I think we both got a grand prize, along with the collector that got the Caesar portrait denarius, the Pergamese temple cistophor, the Domitian as Caesar under Titus, and probably a few more. Although Naville rarely have the best looking coins, they sure are good at finding interesting ones.

 

A very beautiful coin. Congratulations!

 

Given their limited production and a lack of interest among some, I think I might be more surprised to find a published tessera than an unpublished one. That said, I would not limit my search to numismatic sources. As noted above, they are not coins but coin-like objects. I can see them being included with seals, weights and similar categories.

On Twitter, I follow an account named token_communities (@ancient_tokens). Token Communities is a project of the University of Warwick in the UK, headed by Dr. Clare Rowan. Her contact info can be found at the project's website, linked below.

According to the project's website, "The Token Communities project will provide the first extensive, multi-regional analysis of tokens or ‘monetiform’ objects in the ancient Mediterranean. We will examine the active roles of these objects in constituting numerous aspects of social life, as well as their importance to economic, political, social and cultural history. The project will focus on the Hellenistic world (c. 323-30 BC), and the Roman world prior to late antiquity (first century BC - AD 284)."

https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/classics/research/dept_projects/tcam/

These folks may be able to point you in the right direction. If nothing else, I imagine they would be thrilled to see your tessera.

 

Thanks; I'll seriously consider it. I've never been in touch with Clare Rowan before, although I do have her book, and do know (through a number of emails) Liv Mariah Yarrow, the author of a companion book in the same series.

Too bad that there's no provenance attached to the tessera. "Private British collection" isn't very helpful. Although I do wonder, given that most of the other Roman Alexandrian materials in the Naville auction were ex. Dattari Collection (presumably indirectly, from someone who bought a large number of Dattari coins at some point), whether this one originally came from Dattari as well. Note the statement in Emmett's preface at p. viii that in addition to the more than 400 tesserae and anonymous bronzes he does list, "Approximately 300 additional lead tokens in the recent Dattari supplement volume could not be included, because the coin types are nearly impossible to identify correctly due to the poor quality of the coins and coin plates."

Also, does anyone know if RPC even includes tesserae and similar Roman Provincial exonumia? If not, I won't bother writing to them.

 

I agree that the crook and flail figure is Osiris. Great new coins Donna.

 

Seems unlikely that this would be one of those considering it's in pretty stellar condition. In addition, naville tends to sell quite a lot of alexandrian coins, dattari aside.

 

Donna, I think what you've said about your coin and Dattari is about right. I think what's actually going on is that the plates were switched. Yours is dated L - ς (Year 6) but it's rubbing was switched with the L - B (Year 2). Since the B (Dattari 2429, Dattari-Savio 2431) should come before the ς (Dattari 2431, Dattari-Savio 2429), I think the 1901 catalog is correct, but that someone mixed up these photos, either Savio or Dattari's daughter (who edited plates at some point).

I couldn't get them all in one photo, but here is the bottom of plate 117 (two photos, mostly overlapping except at the far left / far right). The Phoenix coins are numbered 2428, 2429, 2430, 8290, 2431, 2432, 2433 (the 8290 being the only one added between 1901 and 1913 -- the best I've been able to tell about the higher-numbered ones).

(These and more photos -- 5 total, including the ones of your coin alone, most of them redundant with at least one other -- here: https://imgur.com/a/dhy4rLH )

 

Thanks once again. I think your explanation has to be correct.

 

Very nice, Donna. Glad you picked that one up. I was beat out of all the Dattari specimens that I had an eye on, except for this one.

Egypt, Alexandria. Dattari. Antoninus Pius, 138-161 Hemidrachm circa 138-139 (year 2), Æ 28.20 mm., 12.39 g. Bare-headed, draped and cuirassed bust r. Rev. Eusebeia seated, l., holding patera over Egyptian altar, and long sceptre; in l. field, LB. RPC 15753.6 (this coin). Dattari-Savio Pl. 127, 8432 (this coin). Rare. Nice brown tone, Very Fine. From the Dattari collection.

 

Agreed. It'd also be interesting to know if it is indeed a tessera. I know @Ardatirion has/had a collection of these and has probably done alot of research on them. He's not been active here, but perhaps he'll see this and chime in.

 

@dltsrq, it's bracing to be reminded of how much properly ancient material is unpublished. In the wild west of early medieval, that's kind of the default mode.
For that, you're cordially invited to look at this thread, by @ominus1.
https://www.cointalk.com/threads/and-its-another-louie-louis-vi-the-fat.394844/#post-8278068

 

Earlier today, I thought I'd check to see what sort of tesserae the British Museum might have. My search for "tessera" among their collections brought up an assortment of mosaic tiles.