Ancients => Post your Favourite coin and *Favourite tune*

I’m sad.



Luckily I just got a really cool ant-nose hoard to distract myself with.

 

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HAIL TO THE KING!

KINGDOM OF THRACE. Lysimachos
AR Tetradrachm. 16.78g, 29.1mm. Klazomenai mint, 294-290 BC. Thompson –; Müller 129 var. (monogram); Meydancikkale 2719 var. (same); CNG E-322, lot 114 (same dies). O: Diademed head of the deified Alexander right, with horn of Ammon. R: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ – ΛΥΣΙΜΑΧΟΥ, Athena Nikephoros seated left, left arm resting on shield, spear behind; monograms above arm and on throne, ram's head left in exergue.
Ex William Stancomb Collection, purchased from David Miller

 

This thread has been bare of late, so here's a perennial favourite, The Waterboys, and my favourite Eraviscan coin.

There have been a few threads on Cointalk about Eraviscan coins, struck in present-day Hungary and based, more or less, on contemporary Roman Republican coins. I have a few of these and this is the best of them. I really started to collect them as my girlfriend is from Budapest and maybe her very distant ancestors used them - they also fit nicely with the Roman Republican coins.

Obv. Laureate head of Jupiter right; Rev. RAVIS - Globe between sceptre (resembling thunderbolt) and rudder. 3.35g / 17mm / 9h. References:

• Torbágyi C11 i
• Freeman, Essays Hersh, pl. 29, 6

The bottom is out of focus, so I must do the obverse again.






And The Waterboys... Going to uni. in Galway, Ireland in the mid- to late 80s, The Waterboys were huge - "Whole Of The Moon" must have been played at every disco I went to. Their first three albums - "The Waterboys", "A Pagan Place" and "This Is The Sea" - were the "Big Music" period. In 1988 they moved to Galway and recorded "Fisherman's Blues", a major change of direction to more folksy ballads, which cost them some diehard fans, but gained them many more. Mike Scott remains active as The Waterboys and his new music remains essential, mixing folk and rock. I must try to see him again soon.

Anyway, this is "Don't Bang The Drum", from "This Is The Sea" (1985). This track brings me back to Dun Aengus in June 1989. Then, after finishing my final exams, I went camping to the Aran Islands with some of my classmates, soon to be ex-classmates. Back in June 1989, the sun shone, we swam in the sea, sang in the pubs, cycled around and visited the sights. For a relatively small island, there are many - bronze age forts, early Christian churches, natural wonders like Poll na bPeist. Every field has a name and a story - see Tim Robinson's "Stones of Aran: Pilgrimage" and "Labyrinth" for wonderful descriptions of the island and esoteric discussions on maps, cosmology and the nature of time - "Time, in such places as London, is a disease of the wristbone; one sees sufferers glance anxiously at the glittering lump. I had come to Aran to escape the infection, and bitterly resented its outbreak here." Anyway, Dun Aengus is a semicircular fortress which we're told was begun around 1100BC, with the diameter protected not by a wall, but by a 100m vertical fall into the Atlantic. In the 19th century, George Petrie described it as "the most magnificent barbaric monument extant in Europe". A posse of early archaeologists and historians visited in the 1840s (?) and made speeches on the spot about a doomed civilisation, having fled the mainland, building their temples and fortresses against the Atlantic, watching the setting sun as they awaited their own doom. By all accounts, the visitors then enjoyed a great feast. The outer walls cover 13 acres; inside, there's a defensive screen of stone chevaux de frise, though it's unlikely there was ever any mounted threat, and finally the massive semi-circular fort itself. We spent a few hours there, lay down with our heads over the edge and sat with our legs dangling over. For years afterwards, I had a recurring dream that I was running towards the edge, unable to stop - I'd wake up with my legs jerking, glad to find myself in my own bed. I've been back since, but have stayed a little further from the edge than on that day in 1989.

"Don't Bang The Drum" may evoke nothing in others, or something different, but for me, this is poetry - "emotion recollected in tranquillity" as Wordsworth wrote. If I close my eyes, with the music playing, I'm back in Dun Aengus, on the edge of the cliff, I'm 21 and life is good

"Now we stand in a special place, What will you do here?, What show of soul are we gonna get from you?"



Image shamelessly borrowed from somewhere on the web:



Enjoy!
Aidan.
(I rambled a bit!)

 

Lucilla, AD 164-169.
Roman AR denarius, 3.30 g, 18.7 mm, 12 h.
Rome, AD 164-166.
Obv: LVCILLAE AVG ANTONINI AVG F, bare-headed and draped bust, right.
Rev: VESTA, Vesta, veiled and draped, standing left, sacrificing from simpulum in right hand over lighted altar and holding palladium in left hand.
Refs: RIC 788; BMCRE 325-326; Cohen 92; Sear 5493; MIR 21; CRE 274; ERIC II 36.

 

You ask me if there'll come a time
When I grow tired of you
Never my love
Never my love

You wonder if this heart of mine
Will lose its desire for you
Never my love
Never my love


Agrippina I, wife of Germanicus, 14 BC - AD 33
Roman AE Sestertius 27.92 gm, 34.8 mm, 7 h
Rome mint. Struck under Claudius, 42-54 AD
Obv: AGRIPPINA M F GERMANICI CAESARIS, bare-headed and draped bust right.
Rev: TI CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GERM P M TR P IMP P P around large SC.
Refs: RIC I 102 (Claudius); BMCRE 219 (Claudius); Cohen 3.

 

I went to an interesting gig on Sunday night - "Mahler reimagined". On stage were 4 cellists, a pianist, saxophonist, bassist, drummer and vocalist. I should have written percussionist for the drummer and made everyone an ist. Anyway, the support act was two traditional musicians, so an eclectic bunch. Someone sitting at the front recorded this, which is of course by John Cale and not the good Gustav, but it gives some idea of the night



This is the coin I've added most recently to Tantalus - Cr. 486/1.



It's a denarius of P. Accoleius Lariscolus, from 43BC or 41BC (Crawford & Sear say 43BC, but the more recent RBW book & Roma give the date as 41BC). 3.94g, 18mm.
The obverse has the head of Diana Nemorensis and the reverse a triple statue of the same deity. The moneyer's family apparently came from Aricia, where there was a temple of Diana Nemorensis. Bizarrely, the priesthood at this temple was restricted to runaway slaves - to become the priest, a runaway slave had to kill the incumbent, a practice which persisted at least until the time of Caligula. Octavian's mother, Atia, was also from Aricia and Sear suggests that Octavian influenced the appointment of this moneyer to honour his mother's birthplace, as she died in 43 BC (the date ascribed by Sear to the coin).

 

My favorite thing to come out of Season 8:




POSTUMUS
Billon Antoninianus. 5.98g, 23.9mm. Trier mint, 1st emission, 2nd phase, AD 260-261. RIC V 87; Mairat 1; AGK 88c; RSC 355b. O: IMP C POSTVMVS P F AVG, radiate, draped, and cuirassed bust right. R: SALVS PROVINCIARVM, Night King reclining left, resting on urn, holding anchor and resting hand on prow.

 

My latest veiled Faustina:


Diva Faustina II, AD 147-175/6.
Roman orichalcum sestertius, 27.34 g.
Rome, AD 176-810.
Obv: DIVAE FAVSTIN•AVG•MATR•CASTROR, veiled and draped bust, right.
Rev: CONSECRATIO S C, Pyramidal crematorium of four stories with garlanded base, door on second level and surmounted by Faustina in biga.
Refs: RIC 1709; BMCRE 1552-53; Cohen 76; Sear 5231; MIR 46.

 

Makedon Alexander III - Alexandrine Babylon Di-Shekel Tet 24mm 16.35g LIFETIME 328-311 Baal-Lion, Local coinage to Babylon (Gamma issued during lifetime)

 

This song by the Mother Hips reminds me of coins of Viminacium!




Trebonianus Gallus, AD 251-253.
Roman provincial AE 27, 10.80 g, 26.2 mm, 12 h.
Moesia Superior, Viminacium, AD 251/2.
Obv: IMP C C VIB TREB GALLVS AVG, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust, right.
Rev: PMS C-OL VIM, Moesia standing facing, head left, arms outstretched over a bull and lion; AN XIII in exergue.
Refs: AMNG I 163; BMC 41; Moushmov 56; SNG Hungary 509; Wiczay 2099.

 

Any other In Flames fans here?

 

Well, in honour of the 50th anniversary of the first Moon landing, here's Whipping Boy and a live version of "That Was Then, This Is Now". The sound quality isn't the best, but it opens with "Man walked on the Moon when I was only two..."



And here's the latest coin I've added - a Roman Republican denarius of L. Roscius Fabatus of ca. 64 BC (according to Crawford, dated to 62BC by Harlan). The obverse had the goatskin-clad head of Juno Sospita right, with a control symbol behind (a branch in this case). The reverse has a girl feeding a coiled snake. Juno Sospita was a goddess associated with Lanuvium, adopted by the Romans when the city's residents became Roman citizens as early as 338 BC and the Roman consuls visited Lanuvium each year to worship at her home town. The reverse depicts a local ritual where, according to Aelian in "On the Nature of Animals", maidens would bring barley cakes to a cave, the lair of a snake. They'd enter the cavern blindfolded and Divine Inspiration would guide them to the snake, apparently. If the girl was a virgin, the snake would eat the food, if not, it would remain uneaten and ants would carry out pieces of the cakes and the rest of the locals would know of the chastity or otherwise of the girls. This was a very large issue of coins - Crawford counted 240 pairs of symbols and 9 more were discovered in the Mesagne Hoard. In almost all cases, there's only one set of dies for each pair of symbols (with my coin, the reverse symbol is largely off-flan, to the left - I included a pic of the symbols under the coin pics).

This coin was apparently part of the Mesagne Hoard, of about 5,940 denarii, found around 1980 - see ANSMN vol. 29 (1984), pp. 103-134) or read it online -

https://www.jstor.org/stable/43573679?read-now=1&refreqid=excelsior:72d64db3e5381b0d9d05cd8cd3665f92&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

The Mesagne Hoard has been important in re-dating some of the later Republican coins, including this one, as it was discovered after Crawford's 1974 work "Roman Republican Coinage". 138 coins of this type were found in the hoard (believed to have been deposited in or around 58 BC) and all were in mint condition like this one. Hersh & Walker, authors of the above article, therefore decided that the coin was most likely minted in 59 BC, rather than Crawford's date of 64 BC. Harlan, writing more recently, prefers 62 BC - it fits his moneyer timescale better and he points out that several other issues were also found in virtually mint condition in the hoard.

This coin isn't listed in the above-mentioned article (but that doesn't list everything).

Cr. 412/1. 3,90g, 18mm, 6h.








ATB,
Aidan.

 

POPPY


POPPAEA
AE17. 3.3g, 16.7mm. PHRYGIA, Acmoneia, circa AD 62. Loukios Servenios Kapito, archon, with his wife Ioulia Severa. RPC I 3175. O: ΠOΠΠAIA CEBACTH, Draped bust of Poppaea to right, wearing wreath of grain ears; before, forepart of lion to right. R: CEPOYHNIOY KAΠITΩNOC - KAI IOYΛIAC / CEOYHPAC – AKMONEΩN, Artemis advancing right, holding bow in her left hand and drawing arrow from quiver with her right; to left, monogram; to right, monogram above lyre.

 

@Ajax not so much of their recent work but all around that Colony/ Clayman era was amazing, I saw them live a few times in the early 2000's

 

My latest coin, a beautiful ancient Iberian classic.



And here's a song that I thought of when looking at the rider on the reverse.

 

"She prays like a Roman with her eyes on fire ..."




Julia Domna, AD 193-217.
Roman AR denarius, 3.45 g, 19.3 mm, 6h.
Antioch (formerly attributed to Laodicea), AD 196-202 (or later).
Obv: IVLIA AVGVSTA, bare-headed and draped bust, right.
Rev: PIETAS PVBLICA, Pietas, veiled and draped, standing left, both hands raised in prayer; at her feet, garlanded and lighted altar.
Refs: RIC 643; BMCRE 612; Cohen 156; RCV --; CRE 381; ERIC II 121.

 

To the Marsic Confederation of the Social War



MARSIC CONFEDERATION (Social War 90-88 BCE)

Marsic Confederation
Denarius 89 BCE
Obv: Italia
Rev: Italia seated shields, -victory crowning, In Ex: retro B
Corfinium Mint
Campana 105 HN Italy 412a
Sear 228 RARE