I bought this at the NY show earlier this month as an unknown Alexandrian dichalkon (although at 10mm and 0.8gms it should probably be called a chalkon) of Hadrian: Obv: (No legend), Bust of Hadrian right Rev: Unknown figure , Δ in field I have rotated this through every angle I can think of and I just can't seem to figure out what the reverse is showing. Any ideas?
Looks like the head of a goat to me (correctly rotated). Emmett lists a goat standing left in a Hadrian dichalkon but no "head of goat". When I get my books out of storage I'll see if anything else pops up.
Thanks once again. That's what I initially thought but I also can't find any reference to this variety in Emmett.
A bit more about Esna...55 km south of Luxor (the abode of Amun-Ra) The temple of Esna, dedicated to the god Khnum, his consorts Menhit and Nebtu, their son, Heka, and the goddess Neith, was remarkable for the beauty of its site and the magnificence of its architecture. It was built of red sandstone, and its portico consisted of six rows of four columns each, with lotus-leaf capitals, all of which however differ from each other. The temple contains very late hieroglyphic inscriptions, dating from the reign of Decius (249–251 AD)... Khnum was a creator god, known as the "potter" who spun man on his wheel from the primordial clay.
I checked RPC Online, which can be narrowed by mint, emperor, metal, and size. Here's the goat type @TIF mentioned, which looks nothing like this. Makes me think of a Capricorn, too, but that type isn't listed. I checked other emperors, since the portrait isn't the clearest either. Nothing I saw on there jumped out as a match; there's an eagle's head, and I could almost imagine part of your coin being a beak, but the rest of it is too different. If no one figures it out, try contacting Andrew Burnett at RPC, he's very knowledgeable and helpful.
