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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;TIF, post: 8210843, member: 56859&quot;]<img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie8" alt=":D" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />&nbsp; Congrats-- it was a very good price.</p><p><br /></p><p>I saw that and was going to bid hard because I&#039;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&#039;s day <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie14" alt=":angelic:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /> <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie8" alt=":D" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />.</p><p><br /></p><p>In a 2016 thread I hypothesized the ostriche on this coin is a now-extinct variety.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/gordianiii-ostrich-hadrianopolis-rt-jpg.559812/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><b>THRACE, Hadrianopolis. Gordian III</b></p><p>AE 18 mm, 2.59 gm</p><p>Obv: AVT K M ANT ΓORΔIANOC AVΓ; laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right.</p><p>Rev: AΔPIANOΠOΛEITΩN; ostrich running like [USER=44183]@stevex6[/USER] is chasing it with a basting brush</p><p>Ref: Varbanov 3833, rare</p><p><br /></p><p>But ostriches aren&#039;t extinct, you say. True, but I believe the bird on this coin is <i>Struthio camelus syriacus</i>, the Arabian ostrich.</p><p><br /></p><p>The common and extant <i>Struthio c. camelus </i>lives in the southern Sahara and northern subsaharan Africa. Its habitat is shown in orange on the map below. <i>Struthio c. syriacus&#039;s</i> 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.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/ostrichhabitat-jpg.559814/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostrich#/media/File:Struthio_camelus_distribution.svg" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostrich#/media/File:Struthio_camelus_distribution.svg" rel="nofollow">image adapted from Wikipedia</a></p><p><br /></p><p>More about the coin here:</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/a-now-extinct-animal-on-a-roman-coin.287175/" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/a-now-extinct-animal-on-a-roman-coin.287175/">https://www.cointalk.com/threads/a-now-extinct-animal-on-a-roman-coin.287175/</a>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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