Egypt, Alexandria HADRIAN Tetradrachm Nilus Reclining

My first coin of 2018 is the result of a Croc fixation for the last month or so . . . late last year I picked up a lot of cut dupondii from Colonia Nemausus featuring Augustus and Agrippa on the obverse and a chained crocodile on the reverse. I'd like to get a whole example of the COL-NEM at some point, but haven't found one to my liking yet. In any case, I started looking at other coins featuring crocodiles and was immediately attracted to the river-god Nilus types. Hadrian's seem prevalent among the offerings:

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Roman Provincial Egypt. Hadrian, 117-138 AD. Billon Tetradrachm.
Mint of Alexandria, Egypt, struck AD 135/136 AD.
Obv: ΑVΤ ΚΑΙC ΤΡΑΙΑΝ ΑΔΡΙΑΝΟC CΕΒ - Laurate and bearded bust of Hadrian facing left.
Rev: Nilus reclining on crocodile holding reed in right hand and cornucopiae in left; regnal year LK (year 20) in upper left field.
23.5mm, 13.36g, 12h
cf. Dattari 1436, Milne 1491, Emmett 879, Köln 1196, RPC 6087
Ex. Pavlos S. Pavlou

I'm not overly educated about Hadrian and his travels but enjoyed the couple of chapters on Egypt found in Ferdinand Gregorovius' The Emperor Hadrian.

I'd love to see everyone's crocodile coins, Hadrian Tets, or whatever, so post 'em if you got 'em.

 

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A great looking coin!

 

Very nice example, congrats.

 

Nice!!! Great details on that tet. Well-centered, good metal... winner!

 

Love that coin. Great portrait and cool reverse!

 

What a great coin!

 

..a crocagator... good lQQkin coin D

 

Great coin with strong detail.

 

Super coin, @dadams! Love the variety of Nilus’ relaxation positions; I have 3 such coins. Here’s one with a reverse similar to yours. Although, given the orientation of the letters LK in your picture, maybe Nilus is sitting on rocks rather than reclining?


ex CNG inventory, A.K. Collection, purchased from Münzen und Medaillen AG, 1969.

 

Wow, that is a beauty!

Great portrait style.

Nilus is looking a little chunky. He needs to put down that horn of plenty now and then and quit snacking on Cheetos all day.

John

 

Super nice tet @dadams! The photo has Nilus kicked back chillin. If you orient the LK horizontaly he is still reclining.

 

Wow! What a Tet!! Very nice indeed!!

 

Here he is with the LK situated properly, still reclining and chillin', but I do think now properly described as seated as @Argicantus points out. You can see how his left foot is now on the ground holding himself up with the right leg bent at the knee to steady himself against the rock.

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Another I found at vcoins is clearly reclining.

Further too, I'm going to have to do more investigating on the attributions. The seller cited: "Ref: Dattari 1436, SNG Cop 404, Milne 1492, Koln 1196, Frankfurt 523, Emmett.-" and I had revised based on the examples and info I could determine from online sources: Dattari 1436, Milne 1491, Emmett 879, Köln 1196, RPC 6087

Here is RPC (online) 6087 for example with the obv legend: ΑΥΤ ΚΑΙС ΤΡΑΙΑΝ - ΑΔΡΙΑΝΟС СƐΒ, but then here is RPC (online) 6090 with the obv legend as: ΑΥΤ ΚΑΙС ΤΡΑ ΑΔΡΙΑΝΟС СƐΒ

I'm certain I see TPA IAN on my own.

Our friend @Okidoki has one like this so I hope he might chime in.

 

ROFL - he is a little on the beefy side.

Thanks for all the comments everyone!

 

Wow, @dadams, that is a superb Nilus tet! Great metal, great portrait, and most of all that wonderful pot-bellied Nilus.

Here he is on a “Travel Series” denarius.

 

Yes, your coin shows Nilus seated. You are correct about the Emmett number (879) and Milne number. I'd get up and check my Dattari book but that means getting out of bed and that's just too much work right now (Is it weird that I happened to have Emmett's book in bed with me, along with the Triton Staffieri catalog? )

As for the obverse legend, Emmett's book gives the legends at the top of each page for that emperor/empress, grouped by year of issue. Per Emmett, as a year 20 tet your coin's obverse legend is, as you noted, ΑVΤ ΚΑΙC ΤΡΑΙΑΝ ΑΔΡΙΑΝΟC CΕΒ. However, there are many instances in which the legends vary from what they are "supposed" to be. He is coming out with a second book detailing variants in legends and such. Unfortunately it skips the earlier emperors and will cover Elagabalus through Domitius Domitianus. For emperors like Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, number of coins and legend variations is probably staggering.

Part of the obverse legend is (presumably) off flan but it is likely legend matches what Emmett says it should be.

Here's what I see:


There are smidgens of partial letters at the neck truncation.

Coins of Roman Egypt were not always well made and it is hard to find coins with full and legible legends. Your coin has much more of the legend than most.

Here's an Emmett 879.20 from CNG and it has letters continuing below Hadrian's neck. It's not a die match but it does have the legend starting at the ~2:00 position like yours, instead of the more often seen ~7:00 position.. Note that the legend is different from what Emmett says it should be; "TPAIAN" is abbreviated to "TPA", which is seen on Hadrian tets from years 21 and 22, per Emmett. Given the general size of letters on your coin, I suspect yours had "TPAIAN" below the neck.




One of the things I enjoy about collecting Roman Egypt is that most books don't get too hung up on such minor variations. I'd rather focus on the interesting iconography.
...

Here's a Hadrian Nilus drachm from a coin show ~4 years ago. Weakly struck and but not terrible for the type


EGYPT, Alexandria. Hadrian
year 16, CE 131/2
Æ drachm
Obv: AVTKAI TPAIA∆PIACE[B seems to be missing or barely squeezed in], laureate and draped bust right, seen from behind
Rev: Nilus seated left on rock, reed in hand; crocodile below [LI] S in left field
Ref: Emmett 1016.16

 

Yes. Just have them beside your bed like us non-weirdos.

Obligatory extra Hadrian drachm with Nilus...

 

Fabulous OP tetradrachm !

Here's my drachm of his


Hadrian, Drachm struck in Alexandria, ca. AD 131-132
AVT KAI TRAI ADRIA CEB, Draped and laureate bust of Hadrian right
Nilus leaning left. Behind an hippopotamus. L IS in field (regnal year 16)
23.87 gr
Ref : Sear #1259, RCV #3763 var, Emmett #1017/16 (R1)

Q

 

Beautiful!