My most recent acquisition is a coin I fell in love at first sight with. As the particular auction's trend was quite disturbing and I lost some coins that I was confident I will get with ~20 EUR, seeing them fly away for 60 or more (I saw prices that made me wonder if I need new glasses, as they were simply on the absurd side), I was not very optimistic I will get even close to this one. And, to my great surprise, I got it. Thrace. Hadrianopolis. Gordian III AD 238-244. Bronze Æ 16 mm, 2,32 g AYT K M ANT ΓOΡΔIANOC AV, laureate, draped, cuirassed bust right / AΔΡIANOΠOΛEITΩN, ostrich walking right. Varbanov 3833. The ostrich reverse, the overall preservation, the portrait and the nice centering made me almost sure that it will be expensive. However, I managed to win it and not with the cost of an arm and a leg. Overall I am very happy I let other coins go without overbidding and my budget was not affected by it. I don't know the story behind this coin. I know there was an (unfortunately extinct) species of ostrich that lived in the Arabic region. But Hadrianopolis wasn't very close to the natural habitat (unless I'm mistaking) and I don't think the ostrich was a symbol of this city (again, unless I'm mistaking). Any explanation is welcome. Please post: - coins with extinct animals - coins with birds or any other favorite animals, ostriches (Trajan coins with camel considered ostrich are welcome) - or coins you won and you were not optimistic about getting them.
Congrats-- it was a very good price. I saw that and was going to bid hard because I'm a hog and like to snatch up every example I can find of coins that are particularly fun or interesting... but I decided not to mess up someone else's day . In a 2016 thread I hypothesized the ostriche on this coin is a now-extinct variety. THRACE, Hadrianopolis. Gordian III AE 18 mm, 2.59 gm Obv: AVT K M ANT ΓORΔIANOC AVΓ; laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right. Rev: AΔPIANOΠOΛEITΩN; ostrich running like @stevex6 is chasing it with a basting brush Ref: Varbanov 3833, rare But ostriches aren't extinct, you say. True, but I believe the bird on this coin is Struthio camelus syriacus, the Arabian ostrich. The common and extant Struthio c. camelus lives in the southern Sahara and northern subsaharan Africa. Its habitat is shown in orange on the map below. Struthio c. syriacus's approximate habitat at the time of the Roman Empire was in the areas shown in pink. The Arabian ostrich was extinct by the mid 20th century. image adapted from Wikipedia More about the coin here: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/a-now-extinct-animal-on-a-roman-coin.287175/
Well, thank you I wasn't going to bid too much, as I was expecting an obscene price. It was a surprise I deserve after miserably losing ~10 coins I was almost sure I would get. Thank you also for the explanation - I knew about the Arabian ostrich, but this still doesn't explain why an ostrich is depicted on a Hadrianopolis coin. Quite a mystery.
I'm not an expert but idle googling suggests that the ancient range of the Arabian Ostrich may have extended into areas where Gordian faced off against the Persians. An intriguing type!
That's a great example! This type is still on the want list for my animal coin menagerie. I think one possibility would be that it relates to a game or festival at the city during Gordian III's reign (I could be wrong but it seems this type was only issued under him?) where ostriches were brought in as a memorable spectacle . For similar reasons we find Imperial coins featuring the elephants, rhinoceroses and hippopotamuses on the reverse.
Those are two possibilities. The only other provincial coin with an ostrich I can find is https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/6/3794 This one appears to be very rare.
