Dear friends! Some coins of my collection show an interesting phenomenon: The edge of the goddess's dress on the reverse has a cannelure. It is not a column or support, but is actually part of the garment. Here I have 4 coins of my collection: Does anyone have any idea what it might be? Or what the die cutter wanted to express with it? Every suggestion is welcomed. (1) markianopolis_macrinus&diadumemian_HrJ(2014) 6.24.5.1 (2) nikopolis_macrinus_HrHJ(2018) 8.23.5.6 (plate coin) (3) nikopolis_elagabal_HrHJ(2018) 8.26.9.4 (plate coin) (4) nikopolis_elagabal_HrHJ(2018) 8.26.35.1 (plate coin) With thanks in Advance Jochen
In order to answer your question I first had to look up "cannelure" and I'm not finding anything helpful with a Google search. "Cannelure" brings up pictures of ridged grooves on bullets and combining the search with "garment", "ancient", etc didn't help . It is clear what you mean based on the coin pictures and your description, but beyond that I don't know what to say. Yes, there appears to be a graceful fan-folded margin or folded draped margin of the garment worn by the goddesses on these coins. Is this unusual? I guess I haven't scrutinized the garments of other coins.
Generous swathes of fabric are draped for garments and in doing so, folds are created. To me the small size and closeness of the folds on those coins suggests the fabric was very thin and fine, which suggests expensive or difficult to make, which is fitting for a goddess . Here's a generic picture of a draped Greek garment. The closely folded/gathered and draped fabric creates ridges (drawn in red for emphasis).
