A fun little nugget picked from the long lineup of a recent Savoca Blue auction Germanicus, d. AD 19 AE 15 Sardes, Lydia Minted under Mnaseas Obv: ΓΕΡΜANIKOΣ ΚΑΙΣΑP, bare head left Rev: ΣΑΡΔΙΑΝΩΝ ΜΝΑΣΕΑΣ, Athena standing, holding spear and patera, resting hand on shield A bit of background: My ultimate vision for my Roman Imperial set is to have, at a minimum, one coin of each Imperial personage from each of the three stages of emperorship: - As Caesar under a senior Augustus - As Augustus - Posthumous Germanicus is one of those tricky early imperial princes - as with so many others, he died a premature death at the intrigues of those who wished him ill. He issued no imperial coins, and neither Augustus nor Tiberius issued coins for him. His son Caligula and brother Claudius both issued posthumous coins to his memory. Germanicus does, however, appear on a modest array of provincial coinage - these are the only option if we want to collect portraits of the man while he was still alive. Problem is - is this actually a lifetime issue? I have seen it attributed both ways - as an issue of Tiberius (thus lifetime) and as an issue of Claudius. On these coins he does look uncannily like his bro, which I feel is an argument toward the latter option, as imperial portraiture was quite idealized until the reign of Claudius. So which is it? Taking all bets! I would love to hear from someone who knows more than I.
Nice coin. I lucked into one of these last year from an eBay auction describing it as "Looks like Augustus Might be Antoninus Pius" It went pretty cheap. My understanding (based on surfing the Web for information on it) that it was posthumous, but I don't know for sure. A Caligula-era tribute? Germanicus Æ 16 Roman Prov. - Sardes, Lydia (d. 19 A.D., c. 19-41 A.D.) Mnaseas, magistrate. ΓEΡMANIKOΣ KAIΣAΡ, Bare head left /ΣAΡΔIANΩN MNAΣEAΣ, Athena standing left, holding patera, resting hand on shield; spear behind to right. RPC 2993; BMC 113. (3.26 grams / 16 mm)
Nice example Mike! That ebay listing sounds like a Cody11111 title I have noticed a trend toward these early provincials going down significantly in price, even for scarce personages - mine was quite inexpensive as well. I had considered Caligula to be out of the picture, since the image of Germanicus here doesn't really look like him on the imperial coins of Caligula's time.
I hadn't thought of comparing Imperial Germanicus portraits - I don't really have much in my collection to make comparisons! It would be cool if Germanicus sat for this issue while he was gallivanting around the Levant. One can only hope. You know, I almost wonder if our examples are obverse die matches. Some of that lettering (the weird "N" in particular) sure look the same. Portraits too, although the patinas on ours are so radically different it is hard to tell for sure.
Beautiful portrait on that one! I do have one issued under Claudius Interesting how different all three coins look from each other.
Great Germanicus everyone! Super capture @Finn235 ! Here is my Germanicus under the Caligula monster: RI Germanicus Caesar died 10 October 19 CE Copper As 27mm struck under Caligula- S-C RIC I 35 BMCRE I 49 Ex: Forum Green is stable.
hmmm... Thanks for the heads-up Here is my DRUSUS DRUSUS RI Drusus Caesar AE As 28mm - Restor Issue under Titus I am doing a little hunt on when/where I captured my Germanicus... Locked up 1500 miles away.
