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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;DonnaML, post: 8207362, member: 110350&quot;]A nice example and a great write-up. Here&#039;s mine, a different variety from yours, with the rhino facing right and the legend beginning at 1:00:</p><p><br /></p><p>Domitian (son of Vespasian), AE Quadrans [1/4 As] late 83-85 AD, Rome Mint. Obv. African Rhinoceros with two horns advancing right with head down/ Rev IMP DOMIT AVG GERM (clockwise around starting at 1:00), S C across. RIC II-1 Domitian 249 (2007 ed.), Sear RCV II 2834, Cohen 673. (Legend starting at 1:00 rather than 7:00 is rarer variety, with only 4 examples at OCRE -- none at British Museum; see&nbsp; <a href="http://numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric.2_1(2).dom.249" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric.2_1(2).dom.249" rel="nofollow">http://numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric.2_1(2).dom.249</a> -- and 8 at acsearch.)&nbsp; 16.5 mm., 2.56 g. [<i>Issued after Domitian’s assumption of Germanicus title in late 83 AD, but before the Consular date XI was added to his quadrantes in 85. It was possibly distributed as a token and/or souvenir to the crowds at the Colosseum, which Domitian completed in 82 by adding its uppermost story. See Martial’s </i> <i>Liber De Spectaculis</i> <i>(<a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/martial_on_the_games_of_domitian_01_text.htm" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/martial_on_the_games_of_domitian_01_text.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/martial_on_the_games_of_domitian_01_text.htm</a>)</i> <i>re exhibition of rhinoceros at Colosseum, and re practice of distributing tokens to crowd. See also T.V. Buttrey, “Domitian, the Rhinoceros, and the Date of Martial&#039;s ‘Liber De Spectaculis,’&quot; The Journal of Roman Studies Vol. 97 (2007), pp. 101-112, at <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/20430573?seq=1" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/20430573?seq=1" rel="nofollow">https://www.jstor.org/stable/20430573?seq=1</a>.</i>]</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1438904[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;m not sure how unusual this next one is -- although I can&#039;t think of any Roman Imperial coins showing a hippopotamus other than this antoninianus of Otacilia Severa, a sestertius of her son Philip II, and a number of different varieties of Hadrian&#039;s coins depicting Nilus -- but it&#039;s one of my favorites, and I&#039;ll take any opportunity to show it off:</p><p><br /></p><p>Otacilia Severa (wife of Philip I) AR antoninianus AD 248, Rome mint, 4th Officina. Obv. Draped bust right, wearing stephane, crescent behind shoulders, OTACIL SEVERA AVG/ Rev. Hippopotamus standing right, jaws open, SAECVLARES AVGG; IIII in exergue. RIC IV-3 116(b), RSC IV-3 63, Sear RCV III 9160 (ill.). 23 mm., 4.52 g. (<i>Games commemorating 1,000th&nbsp; anniversary of founding of Rome</i>.)</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1438903[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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