Ancient Coin Animals by Alphabet

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Okay, enough of the eagle-thingy ...

=> ummm, elephants anyone??

 

Steve are you going to use your one armed and one leg Sasquatch coin for SSSS.


Well here's some Eagles like you haven't seen enough..




How bout one Elephant...

Antoninus Pius..138-161 AD.
Ae.As
Rev. Elephant walking right.
Cos llll, exergue.
23mm x 12.44g.

 

I'll throw in my Caesar Elephant Fouree for funsies (It will be about all I can contribute to this thread)

 

Head of eagle or spiny slug?


PAPHLAGONIA, Sinope
AR Drachm
Circa 480-450 BC
6.02g, 15.5mm (max)
Sear Greek 3688; SNG Stancomb 750
O: Crude head of eagle left.
R: Quadripartite incuse square with two opposing quarters filled, the others stippled.

 

I'm going to squeeze in two more eagles before we're done with E. Steve, you reminded me that I also have Tyrian tet of Trajan...



And I won this coin tonight, Elagabalus of Nicaea with legionary eagle and standards - the standards are surmounted by capricorns. (We seem to have forgotten about Capricorn when we were on C!) This is the seller's pic...



Nobody else bid on this coin, which surprised me. They are quite common for Gordian III but very scarce from the Severan era. In fact this particular type begins with Elagabalus, foreshadowed of course by earlier legionary standard types of different varieties. All the lettering is there, if clipped in a few areas, it's well-centered, and the patina is thick and lovely.

I really am surprised nobody else bid. Perhaps collectors see so many of these types from Gordian III that every other one looks like just another ordinary coin?

 

Oh my goodness! Thank you for posting this! I just picked up some uncleaned coins and one is like the Elagabalus but very worn and I have never been able to figure out what it was. Now I just need to figure out which emperor it is...

 

A little late but caught up with a dolphin and eagle.

 

F is for Fish


ARKADIA, Psophis
450-30 BCE
AR obol, 10 mm, 0.69 gm
Obv: forepart of Kerynitian hind right
Rev: fish right, O above, archaic psi below, all within circle incuse
Ref: BCD Peloponnesos 1680 (same dies). Rare.
ex Frank James Collection
ex BCD Collection


SICILY, Selinos
Circa 410 BCE
AR litra, 11mm, 0.76 g, 1h
Obv: nymph seated left on rock, right hand raised above her head, extending her left hand to touch coiled serpent before her; selinon leaf above
Rev: man-faced bull standing right; ΣEΛINONTIOΣ above; in exergue, fish right
Ref: HGC 2, 1229; SNG ANS 711–2 var. (ethnic); SNG Ashmolean 1904–5; SNG Lloyd 1270 var. (same); Basel –; Dewing –; Rizzo pl. XXXIII, 6. Rare.
ex MoneyMuseum, Zurich;
ex Leu 79 (31 October 2000), lot 404;
ex Athos Moretti collection, #482, unpublished manuscript

Someone on this board has a Republican frog and I think a few of you have coins with fly control marks. Foxes appear on very few ancient coins-- some electrum and provincials-- does anyone here have an ancient fox?

 

Nice fish examples, TIF ... sadly, I don't have too many good examples of fish, so I'm gonna toss-in a "FLY" as today's animal-coin offering ...

Anonymous Roman Republic, AE35 As
179-170 BC
Janus & Prow with Fly (above)

 

I don't have one, but I think the coolest flies are found on the small bronzes of Telemessos. They are not just an adjunct, but an entire type. CNG 218, lot 265...



Some catalogs call them bees, but that's a fly if I ever saw one.

Here's about the actual size of the coin, which means what you have is a life-sized image of a fly...

 

I wish I had any foxes to post, but in my hunting I came across this very interesting coin, Ionia or Lydia, uncertain mint. Nomos 2 Lot 112...



CNG described the obverse of this coin as a wolf eating a bunch of grapes, but it looks more like a fox to me. They added this very interesting analysis to boot...

"While naturalistic, this depiction is surely taken from some local myth, such as the famous tale of the fox and the grapes by Aesop. The fact that Aesop actually came from the area of Asia Minor where this coin was presumably struck (Aesop is closely connected with both Samos and Lydia), and that he lived from the late 7th through the mid 6th century (possibly circa 620-564), makes it very likely that there is a connection between this coin and the cultural milieu that gave rise to Aesop’s fables."

 

Not much on FFFF's, a guy who fishes a lot you would think!! just one lonely little fish.

Lucania, Thouriol..400-350 BC.
Ar. Triabol
Obv. Helmeted head of Athena right.
Rev. Bull butting, Fish in Exe.( that's the best i got.)
10x12mm x 0.89g



Yes that's fish at the bottom...

 

I thought it might be Nike flying right, like this one from CNG, but I don't see that exergual figure for Thourioi triobols. I only looked at CNG's archives though. Yours doesn't look like the fish in other Thourioi coins.

 

MYSIA. Kyzikos. Obol
MYSIA. Kyzikos. Obol (Circa 450-400 BC).

Reference.
SNG France 378.

Obv: Forepart of boar left, E (retrograde) on shoulder; tunny behind.
Rev: Head of roaring lion left.

Condition: Extremely fine.

Weight: 0.79 g.
Diameter: 12 mm.

 

dang it, i missed the "e" post...here's a fish to match oki..

 

Don't worry about missing a letter. Just post it whenever you remember

 

OK, thanks for the invitation. Here is an elephant:

Septimius Severus
AR Denarius
A.D. 193-211
4.01 gms, 20.2 mm

Obv: Laurerate head of Severus right. L SEPT SEV PERT AVG IMP VIIII.
Rev: Elephant wearing cuirass walking right. MVNIFICENTIA AVG.
Grade: gEF pretty much as struck. Well centered with 90% of legends clear.
Other: Nice reverse with very clear plaid pattern on elephant. Sear 1766. Ex Heritage Jan 2013 auction 231304 Lot #61069 From Eye Appealing Coins 9/2013.

 

Very nice Jumbo

 

Thanks for the coin complement Okidoki. I'm late to this cool thread & assume we are at F. How about a Flying pig & a Flying horse?


Too soon?