Here's a large bronze of Septimius Severus, measuring 34 mm and weighing 20.22 gr. On the reverse we see a robed figure crowning a trophy (= a hung-up cuirass and attributes), under it two captives, the left handcuffed and the right sitting hunched. There are some letters readable, but not enough to make head and toes of it. I saw a very large bronze on Wildwinds that is like it, from the Asia Minor town of Hadrianothera, but that's 45 mm, not 34. Can you help me identifying it?
What a fine coin, that Künker one. And in fact funny: Nike crowns the emperor, who in turn crowns an empty cuirass. You can make a large crowning circle that way.
Your best hope is to decipher the reverse inscription, which begins about 7:00 and proceeds clockwise. What are you able to make out of it?
Well, this is a rare reverse, I hope somebody would say: it was issued in this and that place. The reverse legend is pretty long and Greek, it starts with CT, followed by possibly a P (that spells Str in Latin). At 11 o'clock I think I see MHO (Meo in Latin), shortly followed by TOY (= tou, often meaning a genitive, of it). There's a longer word in the exergue, and that's all I can read I'm afraid. The obverse legend starts with AVK (as is normal), but it ends clearly in TI, that's unusual. But I didn't see any starting points in Wildwinds.
The listing mentions that it is "cf. Mionnet Supp. V, p. 50, 251 (Bithynia; Pankratios Diogenes)". "cf" means "similar to", right? Maybe the difference is that the Mionnet coin is smaller, like yours. Mionnet is available online. Link to Supp. V. In that book, Mionnet lists Hadrianotherae as being in Bithynia (rather than Mysia)-- I guess that scholarship changed some time after his catalog. Here's a screencap of the reference: The iconography matches your coin. Can you make out enough of the reverse legend to know if it could work? Does the "3,7. AE.-MM" in Mionnet's listing mean the coin is 37 mm? That would also be in the general range of yours, but I'm not sure what all that stuff in the last line means. Perhaps it is explained elsewhere in the book but digging for that info in an unfamiliar language would be tedious. Edit: many posts occurred while I was typing this. I see that your reverse legend doesn't fit with this coin-- but perhaps it was a different magistrate name?
The reverse might be unpublished. The obverse legend will be a variant of AYT KAI L SEPTIMI SEBHRO PERTI. That probably won't help. Can you make out any of the reverse? I found something in ISEGRIM that might match but I don't have SNG Righetti to check. "TROPAION" means trophy. CARIA, Alinda. 193-211 AD. AE. Obverse: ..; PORTRAIT MAN R / SEPT. SEVERUS (WREATH LAUREL / BEARD / CLOTHES / CUIRASS). Reverse: EPI AR KOR MENIPPOY ALINDEWN;PERSONS 2 / MAN STANDING HL(1) / EMPEROR(1) <SEPT. SEVERUS> / MAN STANDING HL(2) / HERAKLES(2) / TROPAION LE / THEREUNDER / FIGURES 2 (WREATH(1-2) / NUDE(2) / CLUB(2) / LION'S SKIN(2)). 1. 36.5mm 28.54g 11h SNG RIGHETTI 0938
TIF, that’s marvelous, it could be, when I try to bend my vision from Str to Epi. I can’t look at my coin now because it’s little coin collectors bedtime in Europe. Stratonikeia crossed my mind, but I don’t see a connection on Wildwinds.
I suppose it's possible the reverse inscription doesn't begin with C but with Ͼ. Is there a dot in there? It may be an epsilon.
Here's another picture (seller's pic, the coin was in a lot). Yes, I suppose reading EPI instead of CT would be a possibility. That Mionnet description fits quite well: emperor in paludamentum (= a short military parade mantle). The obverse inscription ends in PERTI, not PERT. What does that stand for, Pertinax? Does that say anything about the date of the coin > early? The Mionnet description fits better than that of Isegrim. By the way, 100 Fr. (early 19th century!) was quite a lot of money, say 25 Seated Liberty dollars.
Roman Provincial coins this size are called Medaillon, I believe. But in fact they have the size of a sestertius more or less. What the role and meaning was of coins like this, I don't know. In the first vol. of Mionnet I found some clarifications. Rarity Mionnet placed on a 1-8 scale. R5 is pretty rare, but R8 is the max. F.o. means fabrique ordinaire, or 'ordinary style'. But I don't know the meaning of 'MM'. Max Module? In any case, I found no other coins with this reverse description for Septimius Severus, so as long as we don't find anything else I keep the description as Hadrianothera. Conservation-like it has some serious issues, but it still is a nice rare coin.
Found it @Pellinore! PRO: MYSIA PO : CYZICUS PZ : Between 193 and 211 BNG: ALP'H MODESTOY BTG: STRA TIG: NEWKO Obverse VSG: AY KAI L SEPTI SEOYHROS PERTI VT : PORTRAIT MAN R / SEPT. SEVERUS VA : WREATH LAUREL / BEARD / CLOTHES / CUIRASS Reverse RSG: STRA ALP'H MODESTOY KYZIK NEWKO RT : MAN STANDING HL(1) / EMPEROR(1) <SEPT. SEVERUS> / TROPAION LE / THEREUNDER / FIGURES 2 RA : HAND(1) / AT / TROPAION / SPEAR(1) <?> Technical details M : AE GR : 37.5(1) GEW: 23.2(1) ST : 05(1)
Well @ancientone, that's amazing, thanks very much! Before this thread, I had never heard of Isegrim (in coinage). It is like a spectre from the very first computers, but like many of these, it works quite effectively. If you know how to play the keyboard, and understand the keywords: derived from German, not easy. But in this case, it could have saved me quite some time.
You are very welcome. Isegrim is by far the most powerful and comprehensive online resource for ancient coins of Asia Minor. I use a basic pre-made search string and modify it to fit each coin. Here's the string I used for your coin: vs:.*sept.* rs:str.* the shortest I've used to ID any coin, where vs is ObVerse Script, .* is an open ended wildcard extender, rs is Reverse Script. This write-up by archivum on FAC is the best starter guide: Isegrim Really Works / Really Working With Isegrim http://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=44094.0
I have tried and failed to understand Isegrim on many occasions. Guess I need to try harder. I wish someone versed in modern computer programming would bring this apparently wonderful program into this century. Maybe it's already as modern as the task allows. Maybe it's me who is deficient.
Only briefly but I got no hits even when plugging in data of known coins, so I was doing something wrong. I'll try it again.
