Featured Follow the coin theme GAME - ancient edition - post ‘em if you got ‘em

Augustus Ar. denarius, AVGVSTVS DIVI F, bare hd. r., rev., the Actian Apollo stg. l., holding plectrum and lyre, IMP X across fields, ACT in ex., Lugdunum mint (Sear, 1611; RIC 171a; Seaby 144).

ACTIUM VICTORY
RSC 1442
Great theme, next another musical instrument, can we form an orchestra or at least an ensemble ?

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

I only have a lyre

another instrument

 

I've got a number of Lyre / Kithara coins... (I do recall there are other instruments on ancient coins -- but not which ones. All that comes to mind is a borderline instrument: the Gallic Carnyx [Wiki]. It definitely "trumpeted" loudly like a horn, but I don't know if you can say it made "music"?)

[Using thumbnails for extras (I've posted them before), but click if you want to see them big!]

This Lyre's frame is made out of dolphins! It was overstruck on a Syracuse Drachm in just the right way. (I've always wondered if the mint workers did that on purpose.) On the obverse, Apollo is wearing Athena's helmet!


As a control symbol

Being played by Nero-as-Apollo while Rome burns (okay, not really while Rome burns!)



The Carnyx (behind Gallia's head on first coin, Hostilia Saserna Denarius; part of the trophy along with shields & spears on the Caesar denarius below).

NEXT:
Music OR Overstrike
(your choice)​

 

I was looking for another ancient in the collection that does not include a lyre. No luck. So, here's an overstrike done by our old friend Postumus, who did this extensively with his double sestertii. This coin was lot 1217, Roma E-Sale 58, way back in 2019.

The overstrike is most pronounced on the obverse, with some of the larger letters of the under-coin still present. The original coin might have been a sestertius minted in Rome.

Postumus Æ Double Sestertius. Colonia Agrippinensis, circa AD 264-265. IMP C M CAS LAT POSTVMVS P F AVG (sic!), radiate and draped bust right / HERC [PACI]FERO, Hercules standing left, holding branch, club and lion skin; S-C across fields. Bastien 145; RIC 135. 24.63g, 33mm, 1h.



Next, any coin of a secessionist empire/kingdom, rebel or pretender to a throne.

 

How about another Postumus coin, any denomination?

 

Here is the “Farnese Hercules.”

Next: A coin showing a scene from mythology.

 

JULIUS CAESAR
AR Denarius
OBVERSE: Diademed head of Venus right.
REVERSE: CAESAR - Aeneas advancing left, carrying Anchises and palladium
Carthage or military mint with Caesar in North Africa, 47 to 46 BC
4.0g, 17mm
CRI 55, Sydenham 1013, RRC 458/1, S 1402

Next: More mythology

 

Claudius, Sidon, 51-52 AD
rev.: ΣIΔΩNOΣ , Europe riding the Bull right. Date : BΞP : year 162 = 51-52 AD.
In mythology, Europe was a princess from Sidon. Zeus, under the aspect of a bull, abducted her and carried her on his back overseas.

Next : a bull

 

Same mythology as @GinoLR coin above, but on a modern piece (2002 Greece)
A representation of the myth of the Abduction of Europa, the daughter of the Phoenician King Agenor, by Zeus, who had taken the form of a bull, is accompanied with the legend "Ευρώπη" (Europa) and the face value and encircled by the twelve stars of Europe

NEXT: More mythology

 

Here is the Cretan version of the myth of Europa and Zeus.

Next: Full figure of a person or god.

 

Octavianus (he is not called Augustus yet) standing left, holding transverse spear and extending right arm, on a denarius of 32-31 BC.

Do you think it is the same Octavianus, the same attitude as on the famous Prima Porta statue (which is much later)?



NEXT : a nice portrait of Octavian - Augustus

 

MARCUS ANTONIUS
Ionia Silver Cistophoric Tetradrachm
OBVERSE: M ANTONIVS IMP COS DESIG ITER ET TERT, head of Antony right, wreathed in ivy, lituus below, all within wreath of ivy and grapes
REVERSE: III VIR R P C, bust of Octavia right on cista flanked by snakes
Ephesus 39 BC
11.8gm, 26mm
RPC I 2201, Sydenham 1197, Sear 262

Next: Cista

 

Nice coin!

Well, if you "in-cista", here's my worn example.

Mysia, Pergamon, cisophoric tetradrachm, circa 76-67 BC.
Pinder 109
12.1 grams


Next: a Roman provincial tetradrachm

 

More "Gothicus"

 

NEXT: Sol with captive

 

That's a nice one!

Here's one of mine. We can interpret the reverse legends on these, ORIENS AVG, as meaning something like, "A New Morning in Rome."

The rising sun in the east (Oriens / Sol) had the same significance then as it does today, of looking toward the future. It also happened to be where Rome's major threat lay at that time (Persia).

So there's a double-meaning. Aurelian promises a brighter future, and to do it by dominating the east, all of it sanctioned by Sol.

NEXT: Eastern Neighbors of Rome/Greece
(their own coins, or as depicted by Romans/Greeks)​