Reference. Very Rare RIC -; C.-; BMC 1433; RPC 3, 6568; Strack - Obv: HADRIANVS AVGVSTVS. Laureate bust right, drapery on left shoulder Rev: ADVENTVS AVGVSTI / COS III P. P. (No S-C in field) Hadrian on horse rearing left, raising hand and holding spear. 14.95 gr 28 mm h Note The reverse exergue reads ADVENTVS AVGVSTI or the arrival of Augustus topic on FORVM http://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=107585.new#new
I'm a rank beginner when it comes to Hadrian -- I have only two of his coins -- but the portrait style does not look like any other Rome mint Hadrians that I have seen. Nice coin nonetheless.
here you see al my Hadrian's i find i very much like Rome like style http://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/index.php?cat=37270
Your page shows no Eastern asses/sestertii. Have you any links to coins recognized as such? Are there many unofficial bronzes of the period?
Good looking coin. Don't have any Hadrian coins at the moment, looking into getting a denarius or two... ah what am I saying? once I start it becomes four or five.
Good point. While I see that there are numerous styles of Hadrian's portraits on Rome-minted coins, there still seems to be (for reasons I can't articulate) a stylistic difference in the OP's coin when compared to Rome-minted coins. So illustrating non-Rome coins could prove illuminating.
I do not have similar coins, looking at my Hadrian's you see it very similar to Roman style, i know this makes it NOT for sure Roman, i see it as Roman style until proven other wise, same idea as Curtis Clay, the BM think it might be Provincial due to metallurgie, on there testing of there specimen. one can say the lettering is a bit thinner, (i did not see that at first) for now i stick on Roman. i don't mind if its roman or provincial, provincial would it make it even more interesting of course There are not many unofficial bigger bronzes from Hadrian, i'll ask the BM. best, eric
Wow, that's a fantastic OP addition, Oki ..... another winner (great horse) => hey, pretty soon the BM will be asking you for advice on Hadrian coins, eh? Keep-up the awesome collection
update, mine is like specimen 3 on RPC 3, 6567 http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/3/6567/ 6568 is different in bust type. @dougsmit there are no other unknown similar coins known so far. http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/search/a...d=&d2=&w=&w2=&s=&stype=advanced&search=Search
update on RPC 6567 and 6568 which form one group, as die identities prove, look like small medallions, of the size of dupondii. They lack the SC formula and their metallic content (at least for the L specimen which has been analysed) is not orichalcum, but high tin bronze (Sn 17.7%; Pb 9.8%: unpublished analysis by Q. Wang, British Museum). This suggests that they were not struck in Rome but elsewhere. It is then difficult to resist the idea that they were struck in the East and that the Adventus reverse design links them with Hadrian’s journeys. The obverse style seems to link them to the Ephesian cistophori (compare with RPC 1328-1349) and Ephesian bronzes (see Bellesia, loc. cit., p. 13). Anomalous denarii of Hadrian, which diverge stylistically from both the mint of Rome and Antioch, are also of a similar style as some of the cistophori of Hadrian . See also General Introduction, chapter 4.
The lack of SC and wide flans of the three coins makes me favor the mini-medallion theory rather than Provincial 'coin'. I don't see this being provable one way or the other.