Here's a quadrans from the 1st century BC from Paestum, Lucania, issued (sponsored) by the Lady Mineia M. f. I believe this is the only example of a Greek coin being struck in the name of a private person. Lady Mineia's name appears on a list of magistrates of the town of Paestum. Perhaps she took over the duties of the magistrate when her husband died? Her family was very wealthy, and Lady Mineia was generous. The building shown on the reverse of the coin probably depicts a building that she donated to the town.The letters P. S. S. C. surrounding the building stand for Paesti Signatum Senatus Consulto. The legend surrounding her portrait is MINEIA M F. Crawford and others have proposed that the obverse is the head of Mineia. I don't believe there is any other Roman coin with the portrait of a female that was not a member of the imperial family, or a goddess. Does anyone know of another instance where a female held the office of magistrate? Or of a Greek coin with the portrait of a female who was not a member of an imperial family or a goddess? Or another example of a Greek coin being struck in the name of a private person? If you do, please post! 90-44 BC Lucania, Paestum (Mineia M. f., magistrate) AE Quadrans 4.0 gm - 14 mm Obv: Female bust right, MINEIA M F Rev: Two-story building, surrounded by P.S.S.C References: Crawford, Paestum 38b; HN Italy 1258; Price and Trell fig. 475.
WOW! I LIKE the unique history and portrayal of this person! LOL, she probably OWNED the town. This is REALLY cool! Congrats finding this one! It was such a male-dominated culture in Central Italia, so this person had to be very special for these to be minted!
Ooops! This coin is from LUCANIA. My thanks to @Mat for spotting this. I corrected the misspelling in the thread, but don't seem to be able to edit the title of this post. I hate autocorrect!
neat coin and story AG, i've never seen the type. here's a coin i have with an "unknown female bust", it's probably a goddess or queen, but who knows..maybe it was some lady...i've always wanted to know. Tetrarchy of Chalkis, Coele Syria, Lysanias, 40 - 36 B.C. O; female bust, R: double cornucopia, flanked by ligatures, 22 x 24 mm, 5.4 g
Cool coin @chrsmat71, I will have to get one of those coins! Is she wearing headgear? Also, can you provide a reference for the coin?
i don't think she has "headgera", it think it's ...well, i'm not sure. id say it was a bankers mark if it were a silver coin, but it's AE. it's a pretty rare coin, i never did find a reference for it other than "BMC Galatia", here it is a forum.... http://www.forumancientcoins.com/catalog/roman-and-greek-coins.asp?vpar=1349 oops, missed this one...glad i went back and looked. Lindgren III 1243 BMC galatia is online.. https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=bmc galatia i'll be darned if i can find it in there.
That is so cool!!!!! Besides the 'generic' female head or male head, I am not aware of any other 'private person' striking coins---but I'm sure a few others probably do...if any exist.
I looked your coin up in RPC, and discovered that coins were issued from Chalkis by only 5 individuals: Ptolemy (son of Memmaeus), Lysanias, Cleopatra (sometime with Anthony), Zenodorus, and King Herod. So Lysanias, who minted this coin, was in elite company. Nice capture @chrsmat71! I suppose we will never know who the female on the obverse of your coin is...
Congrats on scoring that sweet OP-example, ancientcoinguru (I love coins from Lucania) Chrsmat => I also have a coin from Chalkis and for the obverse figure, it merely states "Head of nymph, Chalcis" http://www.theoi.com/Nymphe/NympheEuboia.html ... maybe your example also has the ol' nymph on it?
it could be a nymph @stevex6, but it's not the same chalcis. your coin comes from the chalcis in modern greece, mine coin comes from the chalcis that was in what is today syria. kind of confusing.
