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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;David Atherton, post: 8279728, member: 82616&quot;]Sometimes you have to take what you can get. That is the case with my latest Alexandrian - a decently rare Domitian diobol.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1462168[/ATTACH] <b>Domitian</b></p><p>Æ Diobol, 5.96g</p><p>Alexandria mint, 91-92 AD</p><p>Obv: ΑΥΤ ΚΑΙϹΑΡ ΔΟΜΙΤ ϹƐΒ ΓƐΡΜ; Head of Domitian, wreathed with corn, r.</p><p>Rev: LΙΑ; Serpent on back of horse, r.</p><p>RPC 2634 (0 spec.). Emmett 276.11. Dattari-Savio 568.</p><p>Acquired from Satyricoins, March 2022.</p><p><br /></p><p>The Alexandrian mint under Domitian around regnal year 10 or 11 experienced a &#039;dramatic improvement in style&#039; and the &#039;adoption of a wide range of new types&#039; (Milne). One of those new types features an Agathodaemon serpent (the &#039;Good Spirit&#039; of grain fields and vineyards) riding a horse. The &#039;Good Spirit&#039; was venerated in both Greek and Roman religions, depicted as a serpent on Roman shrines and lararia and honoured as an omen of good luck among the Greeks. The Agathodaemon serpent&#039;s most developed form flourished in Roman Egypt where it became an exalted deity, far beyond the status of a mere household god. Emmett says of this unusual type &#039;The horse represents the changing of the seasons, and the serpent represents rebirth and regeneration of the crops upon which Egyptian life and prosperity depended.&#039; This regnal year 11 diobol is a somewhat scarce variant of the serpent on horseback type with the obverse portrait wreathed with corn. Obverse die match with BMC 334.</p><p><br /></p><p>The coin itself is worn and over cleaned, but waiting for a pristine specimen may be an exercise in futility.</p><p><br /></p><p>Feel free to post your worn or over cleaned rarities.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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