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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;David Atherton, post: 8207170, member: 82616&quot;]My latest coin makes the third Domitianic rhino quadrans I&#039;ve acquired. There are four main variants and three ultra rare mules of the type, so my work isn&#039;t quite done here. This one I believe is a bit above average.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1438874[/ATTACH]</p><p><b>Domitian</b></p><p>Æ Quadrans, 3.39g</p><p>Rome Mint, 84-85 AD</p><p>Obv: (No legend) Rhinoceros stg. l.</p><p>Rev: IMP DOMIT AVG GERM; S C in centre</p><p>RIC 250 (C). BMC 498. BNC 539.</p><p>Acquired from eBay, January 2022.</p><p><br /></p><p>A few years into Domitian&#039;s reign an extraordinary issue of quadrantes were struck featuring a rhinoceros. Although the coins are undated, their production can be narrowed down between late 83 when he assumed the title Germanicus and 85 when the consular date XI appeared on the quadrantes. The type is highly unusual and breaks with the standard obverses that were normally featured on the quadrans. One may ask, why a rhinoceros? Certainly the animal was rare in Rome and most difficult to obtain. The rhinoceros depicted on the coin is the African species, identified by the two horns. Martial in his book &#039;On Spectacles&#039; tells of such a rhinoceros in the Colosseum. Presumably, these coins were struck with that very &#039;star performer&#039; in mind. Ted Buttrey wrote about this coin type in his article Domitian, the Rhinoceros, and the Date of Martial&#039;s &quot;Liber De Spectaculis&quot;: &quot;it is wrong to write off the rhinoceros of Domitian&#039;s coin casually, as if the coin were a picture postcard from the zoo: &#039;This is a rhinoceros&#039;. No, coin types are pointed. Everything has to do with imperial advertisement and with its importance at the moment of issue: &#039;This is my rhinoceros&#039;. Domitian&#039;s rhinoceros, in its supremacy in the arena might well stand as a metaphor for the invincible success of the emperor conquering general who had recently assumed the historically-weighted title of Germanicus.&quot; Coming back to Martial, he also speaks of tokens being showered upon the cheering crowds - could these quadrantes struck cheaply and in massive quantities have been gifts to the cheering mob at the arena? In essence, can this coin double as currency and a souvenir from a long ago day at the games in the Colosseum?</p><p><br /></p><p>RIC places this issue of quadrantes within the 84-85 time period based on Domitian titled as &#039;Germanicus&#039; (&#039;GERM&#039; - which could only be post 83) and before 85 (after which all these small issues were dated). RIC also speculates many of these quadrantes were struck &#039;al marco&#039;, i.e. by batch weight, because of the variable weights encountered on many specimens. This is a common variant of the rhino type which has the reverse legend starting in the lower left.</p><p><br /></p><p>Please show your unusual zoological coins![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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