The fascinating Star and Crescent Series - a pet project of mine!

Some time ago, I purchased a lot of 5 unidentified tesserae for $25. All five have a lovely star and crescent design and quite interesting reverses. I did some research, and they are part of the “Star and Crescent” series from Moesia, likely from Nicopolis ad Istrum. Here is one of mine:

3 stars with a Crescent/Fortuna with a rudder and cornucopia



I found this series fascinating and decided to catalog as many of these coins as possible, and attempt to identify the uncertain ones! It has become a bit of a pet project. There is a variety of star orientations, and there seems to be a general theme of Egyptomania, apotropaic imagery, fortune, and fertility. Could these possibly be magic talismans of some sort - to me, this seems the likely answer! Every example I could find is holed, so they were likely worn, and at-least strung on something. There is a variety of dies used for each type. I have seen dates ranging from the 1st to 4th century BC. To me, the 2nd to 3rd century seems likely - this would line up with similar coins with the star and crescent design as well as Egyptomania in the region. I have also seen suggestions that the crescent represents a solar eclipse with the stars being those which appear during an eclipse - interesting, but I am not sure if I believe this. Anyway, here is an abridged list (I made a longer list of every example I could find with larger images, lmk if you would like to see that).


Note, the descriptions are mostly from Auction houses, but those in italics are mine! Additionally, I have left a few notes that came to me while writing this post!

Fortuna could be Fortuna Isis?


The standing figure resembles cult statues - could it be Cybele? It seems to have a head dress.

Could this triangle and sphere a pouch of some sort? I’m not sure!


Let me know if you have any ideas! I find this series really fascinating, and if you know anything, please let me know.

Feel free to post your own Tesserae/coins with stars!

 

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I find it intriguing that with one exception all of the coins are holed. That leads to endless speculation as to why they were holed. Was it a form of group identification?

 

The one coin that isn't holed still seems to have either been holed at one point and plugged, or was not punched hard enough to break through. Strange indeed!

 

I'd reckon. The imagery also supports this idea!

 

IMHO I go long with @lordmarcovan , so many holes is too coincidental. Possibly they were worn as an amulet around the neck or wrist, and the more you had, the luckier or more protected you were or in the singular they identified you as a member of a group?
Here is a Hadrian denarius.


HADRIANVS AVGVSTVS, laureate bust right, draped far shoulder / COS III, crescent moon, seven stars within.

good very fine

RIC 202; RSC 466; BMC 464.

 

Hi @Milo W,

As you’ve noted, there is mulch Egyptionizing in these tokens. Can you give me a citation to the paper(s) that describe this series? I’d like to learn a bit more about this series.

A few notes for your files. The coiled serpent is most probably an agathothemon (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agathodaemon ). Lots of religious significance here.

The bull with crescent mark is the Apis bull. More Egyptian religious connotations. The Apis has connections to Osiris and Isis, but note that by the 2-3 century CE these originally Egyptian deities were worshipped throughout the empire. The crescent marking on the bull was thought to be the marker, a sign from heaven, of its holy nature. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apis_(deity) where the entry notes:

“In the region where Ptah was worshiped, cattle exhibited white patterning on their mainly black bodies, and so a belief grew up that the Apis calf had to have a certain set of markings suitable to its role. It was required to have a white triangular marking upon its forehead, a white Egyptian vulture wing outline on its back, a scarab mark under its tongue, a white crescent moon shape on its right flank, and double hairs on his tail.”​

Finally, keep in mind that Hermes was associated with the Egyptian Horus, son of Osiris and Isis.

Thanks for posting this series with your notes.

- Broucheion

 

Thank you for the detailed comment! Unfortunately, I have been unable to find any papers on the series - though there may be some works out there! Most of what I have found is based on the Auction listings, discussions with my professors, and comparisons with other works. I know they are listed as a 1/4 assarion in Hristova & Jekov, but I have been unable to get my hands on this catalog and am skeptical of this conclusion; they are quite thin for coinage, always holed, and do not have any legends.

I did find this article about crescents on coins, but it was not terribly helpful: https://coinweek.com/star-crescent-ancient-coins/

I agree with your Apis identification - I wonder if the "Triangle atop Circle" coin is related to the "triangular marking" on Apis. The description reminds me of this Egyptian footboard:

If I find any writing regarding this series, I will let you know!