Year spelled out long-hand on Alexandrian Tet

On the reverse of this Alexandrian tetradrachm, the regnal year is spelled out: "ΔωΩΔЄΚΑΤΟΥ" (12). This is equivalent of writing "TWELVE." I wonder why the designer didn't simply write IB, which would be more typical.

Anyway, post any coins you may have that have the date spelled out, any coins you may have from year 12 (of anything), tetradrachms, whatever you want to share!


Faustina Jr, AD 161-175
Billon Tetradrachm; 13.82 g, 23.2 mm
Alexandria, AD 148/9
Obv: ΦΑΥCΤΙΝΑ CЄΒΑCΤΗ, pearl-diademed and draped bust, right
Rev: L ΔωΩΔЄΚΑΤΟΥ (regnal year 12 of Antoninus Pius), Dikaiosyne seated left, holding scales and cornucopiae
Refs: Köln 1944; Dattari 3238; BMC 1317; K&G 38.7.

 

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I wonder the same thing. Going through Emmett's book, at a glance there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason for which years were sometimes spelled out. It might be fun analyze the occurrence and distribution to see if it suggests any reasons (but I doubt it would).

Here are a couple of my Roman Egyptian coins with spelled-out years. I haven't counted but the percent of spelled-out dates relative to my total number of Roman Egyptian coins is probably ~5%.


EGYPT, Alexandria. Hadrian
BI tetradrachm; 26 mm, 12.6 gm
Regnal year 11 (CE 126/7)
Obv: AVTKAI TPAIAΔPIA CEB; laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right, seen from behind
Rev: L ENΔ EKATOV: Canopus of Osiris right
Ref: Emmett 827.11, R3; Milne 1205

L connotes year. I don't know why the symbol is a L rather than an E (ETOVC). Does anyone here know? ENΔEKATOV is eleven.


EGYPT, Alexandria. Antoninus Pius
year 2, CE 138/9
tetradrachm, 24 mm, 12.63 gm
Obv: AVTKTAIΛAΔPANTωNINOCEVCEB, bare head right
Rev: ETO VCB, canopus of Osiris right on cushion
Ref: Emmett 1373 (2), R1

This one spells out word year (ETOVC) instead of the spelling out the number. B is 2 in the usual alpha for numeric A, B, Γ, Δ.../1, 2, 3, 4... scheme.

 

That is a very cool and unique coin with Twelve written out long-hand. Further, I see that they wrote the long-O in upper and lower case (if I am correct): ΔωΩΔΕΚΑΤΟΥ

with the ω as a lower-case long-o, and Ω as an upper-case long-O. LOL

 

What you see as a Ω is the second Δ. What you're seeing as the second Δ is actually the polos crown worn by Dikaiosyne.

And there was no such thing as upper or lower case letters in the 2nd century AD. ω is simply the way omega is rendered in the uncial script in Alexandria and other parts of the Greek-speaking world. The use of separate upper and lower case letters in Greek did not happen until the late medieval period.

Here is a an example of the uncial script on a 5th century AD manuscript from Alexandria (Codex Alexandrinus). Many examples of the omega are shown:

 

I raised this very issue a few years back. It's apparently unknown to anyone. Not "to anyone on CT"; I mean "to anyone."

 

I actually write a lot of my notes using Greek lettering, utilizing upper and lower cases. In business negotiations, sometimes I note prying eyes when I write notes to myself, so I taught myself to write this way (learned during my University days).

 

I've heard the theory that the L abbreviation for year is derived from an Egyptian symbol for "year", in either demotic or hieroglyphic script. I don't know enough to judge how likely that seems, I just offer it for consideration. Nice coins, sadly none of my Roman Egypt coins spell out the year.

 

THANK YOU! This is great! So, although omega was written Ω in the Greek world, it was ALSO ω . Then LATER, in late Medieval period, it became the lower-case usage?

 

Exactly, and not even consistently until well after the invention of the printing press.

 

For anyone interested in the way Greek and Latin was written in ancient and medieval times, this is the standart text on the subject. It's very affordable in the Kindle editon:

https://smile.amazon.com/Introducti...7&sr=8-1&keywords=maunde+thompson+paleography

 

Ordered. Book form.

 

Hmm... the Kindle version received terrible reviews for technical reasons. I'd much prefer this book in digital form but that looks like a bad decision in this case.

Edited: There's a "cleaned up" version viewable online here: https://archive.org/details/handbookofgreeka002967mbp

 

I got the Gutenberg Press, Copyright ca. 1440, Printed 1445 version...

This guy GUARANTEES it is old...

 

The "letter" L is really not the letter L. The symbol that resembles L is taken from Demotic Egyptian documents. When it is used in the documents it indicates that the number that follows it is a year. I too have wondered whether there is any significance to spelling out the year as opposed to using the simple Greek numeral and have not come up with an answer. The only thing I know for certain is that the number nine always (I believe, though there may be exceptions I have forgotten) is written out because the Greek letter for 9 is theta, and that is the first letter in the word Θάνατος, which means "death".

 

Thanks for the insight, @Voulgaroktonou!

As for the number 9 appearing as theta, on all of my Roman Egypt year 9 coins it is spelled out*, but Emmett does list the theta as a known variety on coins of many emperors.

*I don't have many year nines

 

My very unpopular quiz page had a question on the number nine from which the photo below is taken.

Coin B is the most common spelled out nine L ENATOV by Diocletian. Nine was spelled out because the stand alone numeral theta was the sign of thanatos or death. Coin A shows the other common dodge using additive delta (4) and epsilon (5) = 9 on a coin of Constantine I. C shows that later Christian rulers did not go for Pagan superstitions so theta was used for the workshop on this Constantius II.


Perhaps more strange is the Alexandrian drachm of Antoninus Pius with Nilus reclining on his crocodile. It reads L TPICKAIS. Thirteen was Tris (3) kai (and) deka (10) but the coin has no deka so the 13 was abbreviated. That does not explain the final S. The Nilus type is very common at Alexandria. Below is a year 12 (L DWDEK) of Hadrian also with the reclining Nilus type. Completely separate above the figure is IS which is the numeral for 16. It happens that a river measurement of 16 cubits was what the Egyptians considered necessary to flood the fields and renew the land insuring a bountiful harvest. Here the 16 is a request to Nilus for a 16 cubit flood level. I consider the final IS on the Pius to carry the same meaning but am not sure if we should read that I both with TPICKA or just say the abbreviation was shorter and it was a coincidence that the I was there standing for ten along with the S (6). How are we to say what was in the head of the die cutter? If there were a dot before the IS, I would have to take them as separates but there is no dot.


Before you say no one would do anything so stupid, lets remember that there are antoniniani of the later 3rd century with legend RESTITVTOR BIS allowing the OR to be recycled to make the second word ORBIS. How are we to know? We give our best guesses. I could not enjoy a hobby that provided everything you needed to know in a 'Redbook'. Someone can write an article on such things but proving conclusions and convincing every expert (real or imagined) will not be the easiest task.

 

Interesting coins, @dougsmit . Very interesting because the similar coin with a right-facing bust, Köln 1639 (Dattari 2753, K&G 35.477), has Nilus reclining with the inscription L TPICKAIIς, with one extra I.

And how sure are we that the final Greek numerals Iς really do indicate 16 cubits, the optimal flood level height of the Nile during inundation season? Is this well-established, or is it conjecture that has been passed down over the years and become generally accepted as lore?

Yours without the second iota may be an engraver's error, of course, but it's interesting to note that KAI is the Greek word for "and." I wonder if the inscription is supposed to read TRIC (3) KAI (and) ς (six), which equals 9. Could this be a dodge to avoid using theta like the 4+5 in your Constantine campgate?

 

I had never thought of that. It would help to check fo die links with other coins from those years and see if we can date that obverse.

 

Thank you for this thread. I was recently forced to do some reviewing of this coin (my coin, not my picture):






I used these resources to figure out the date:

http://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=greek dates

http://www.coinsofromanegypt.org/html/topics/greekdates.htm

 

I am revisiting old threads looking for more info on the "thanatos" workshop. I mentioned that the 9th letter of the Greek alphabet was theta, and a student corrected me that it's iota, and that theta was 8th. Was there a different Greek alphabet order that made theta letter 9 in the 4th c.? Can anyone direct me to a source on the issue?