Snakes and Space

Nothing earth shattering, but these two little provincials arrived today, Commodus of Philippopolis and Septimius Severus of Nikopolis ad Istrum. For whatever reason, they weren't getting any love at auction, but they do have respectable features - nothing CNG would sell but hey, sometimes ya eats filet mignon, sometimes Taco Bell...

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Well, for me Taco Bell is high class. I eat at the local soup kitchen. Two very nice coins JA, particularly the Commodus snake. I have a Sep Sev similar to this one:


SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS
AE 16
OBVERSE: AV KAI CE CEVHPO, laureate head right
REVERSE: NIKOPOLITWN PROC ICTRO, crescent and one star
Struck at Nikopolis, 193-211 AD
3.1g, 16mm
BMC 17

 

Yeah, which way is up on those crescent-moon-star coins? I see them pictured in all possible orientations.

 

Dunno.

 

Bing, the obverse of your coin actually reads AV K Λ (for Lucius) CEVHPO.

 

Really? I've been using the attribution of the seller. Let me do some checking....

 

JA I would assume your orientation is correct, I think it has to do with the placement of the start of the legend, IF that holds up than there you go!

 

Well, I'm just reading the letters on the coin.

 

I think it may be possible that part of the legend is missing?

 

Ugh. Now I've got to look it up. Do you have any idea how tired I am of looking up coins? I think we should all make up our own attributions.

 

i love to score some bargain bin provincials on the cheap! i'm totally on the wagon until the weekend, or i may have given you some competition for those, a "snake" and a "moon" are both on my hit list@

here are a couple of my "taco bell" provincial that i rather like (both ebay, less than 15 bucks)



Elagabalus, 218 - 222 AD, Nikopolis ad Istrum, Moesia Inferior, AE assarion

O: AVT K M ANTΩNINOC, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right
R: ΝΙΚΟΠΟΛΙΤΩΝ ΠΡΟC ΙCΤΡΟΝ, Nike standing left, and Elagabalus standing right holding spear, they erect a trophy of captured arms with two bound captives at the base
Varbanov 3859
17.5 mm 3.7 g



Caracalla, 211-217 AD; Trajanopolis, Thrace
o:Caracalla right
r:Eros on dolphin,
moushmov 5025,
18mm, 3.4g

 

It's Varbanov legend D, AV K Λ CEVHPO. The coin is 2472.

 

Nice! I love them both.

 

Thanks JA. I have my catalog corrected.

 

@John Anthony That snake is very cool. So are beefy five layer burritos.

 

We had a discussion some time back with Doug Smith, in which he compared the cost of some of his coins to meals at Taco Bell, hence the reference. Each of the OP coins cost about a meal-and-a-half at Taco Bell.

Snakes are a common theme on provincials. Sometimes they're organized into neat folds. What I like about some of the Philippopolis snakes is that they're a tangled jumble that get described simply as "entwined snakes."

 

I wonder why snakes are a common theme on provincials?

 

Snakes are most often associated with medicine and healing in the ancient world. The modern Bowl of Hygieia (symbol of pharmacy) and Rod of Asclepius (symbol of medicine) both have entwined serpents.

 

I like snakes and used to have one. Would like to add more snakes to my coin collection.

I guess I could post a couple coins here...

A provincial:


Marcianopolis, Caracalla, AD 198-217
AE27, 10.2g, 6h.
Obv.: ΠIOC AVΓ ANTΩNINOC; Laureate head right, seen from behind.
Rev.: YΠ KYNTIΛIANOY MAPKIANOΠOΛITΩN (Quintillianus magistrate); Eagle standing left on globe, head right, holding wreath.

A snake (kind of hard to see, but it's there!)



Hadrian, AD 117 - 138
AE as, 10.8g, 27mm; 6h; Rome mint, AD 128 - 132
Obv.: HADRIANVS AVGVSTVS PP; laureate head right
Rev.: COS III, S C in fields; Salus, draped, standing right, feeding out of patera in left hand snake held in right hand
Ref.: RIC 975

 

Taco Bell is my favorite restaurant and what I get is on their dollar menu so my meal in Virginia is $1.05 tax included with a free Senior drink. Tonight we are in Indiana where they don't give free drinks to Seniors so I'll drink water. Even cheap old me would pay $1.05 for those coins but I assume some of you eat from the fancy menu.
I always place the crescent opening up.