Featured [ancients] A Boy and His Stone

Horn variety *

A coin of Elagabalus has been on my want list ever since TIF’s most fantabulous Featured Thread. This NEWP has privately traded between some CT members before finally landing in the @Collect89 collection. Please say hello to my little friend:

ELAGABALUS
AR Denarius
A.D. 218 – 222 (struck A.D. 221)
3.73 grams, 19.5 mm diameter
Obv: IMP.ANTONINUS PIVS AVG, Laureate draped bust right with horn over forehead.
Rev: P.M.TR.P.IIII.COS.III.P.P. Elagabalus standing left sacrificing over small fire alter holding branch/club in left arm and patera in right hand with star above.
Grade: Good EF, well centered on good silver fabric.
Other: Variety with horn (DBP) with extensive CoinTalk provenance. Ex Littleton coin. Sear Roman Coins and their values #2112, depicted on plate 7.

* Horn variety The portrait of Elagabalus is depicted with a small horn placed over the forehead, signifying divine power. I have it on good authority that this “horn” is actually a Dehydrated Bovine Phallus (DBP).

Here is what David Sear had to say about Elagabalus in the 4th edition of Roman Coins and their values: Varius Avitus Bassianus, later known as Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, was born at Emesa about A.D. 205, the son of Sextus Varius Marcellus and Julia Soaemias, the daughter of Julia Maesa. In his boyhood he was appointed priest of the Sun-God Elagabalus, and it is by this name that he is best known. On may 16th, A.D. 218, he was proclaimed Emperor by the troops stationed in the district around Emesa, and the revolt soon spread to the rest of the Syrian army. Julia Maesa, the grandmother of Elagabalus, was the true instigator of the rebellion: taking advantage of the growing unpopularity of Macrinus she spread the rumor amongst the soldiers that Elagabalus was the son of Caracalla, whose memory the soldiers held dear. Following the defeat of the army of Macrinus, Elagabalus was accepted by the senate as Emperor and began a leisurely journey to Rome. His reign was notorious for religious fanaticism, for cruelty, bloodshed, and excesses of every description, and there was general satisfaction when, on March 6th, 222, Elagabalus and his mother Julia Soaemias were murdered in the practorian camp. Their bodies were dragged through the streets of Rome and thrown into the Tiber.

Anyone else at CT have an Elagabalus including the horn?

Also, would this horn variety coin be RIC 46, B.M.C. 256?

 

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