Denarius of Elagabalus, Providentia

I believe it may be FIDES---- the Goddess of good faith and confidence---holding ears of corn and a basket of fruit.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

I concur with Fides.

 

Thank you!

 

I recently acquired this strange coin of Elagabalus which has Tyche on reverse along with god river Orontes. It weighs 9.72 g. , with diameter of circa 27 mm. I couldn't find an exact match on Wildwinds. I appreciate your comments.

 

Did you look through the coins of Edessa, Mesopotamia? I think you'll find it there.

 

Great. That's the first time I got a coin from there. It would be presently Iraq.

 

You're right TIF. That's BMC 58 - Babelon 52 var. But I noticed that they mention river-god Skyrte instead of Orontes. Could this difference have a significant meaning? Then my coin has double C at the end of Antwneinocc ( like that).

 

This is a different type coin, it's 22MM and my lame spreadsheet has it as a "double denarius"? Is/was there such a denomination?

 

JBG, that's Marcus Aurelius, not Lucius Verus.

 

For clarity's sake I've pasted these two posts together so it wouldn't look like Valentinian was calling the Elagabalus a Marcus Aurelius (JBG's post on page 1; the image doesn't carry over with this quote).

"Double denarius" is another name for the antoninianus introduced by Caracalla.

The river Orontes isn't near Edessa, so I wouldn't expect a coin of Edessa to depict the river god Orontes.

As for the exact legend, I can't read the entire legend on your coin. Plus, yours may not be Babelon 52. It may be some other entry. Ernest Babelon's The Coinage of Edessa in Mesopotamia is available online and Dane Kurth (of Wildwinds) has an English translation. You may wish to go directly to that source if you want a more precise attribution.

Ancient Edessa was located in what is now Şanlıurfa in southern Turkey.

 

=> wow, I love FIDES (man, I've got to score one of these babies!!)



... man JBG, the chick delivering the Thanksgiving dinner is a total winner!! (ummm, or an A&W roller-skate artist)

I like it (a lot)

 

You're absolutely correct.....this is the correct coin, with Providentia.