Elephant in Circus

The existence of an elephant heading left on the reverse of a Seleucid coin did not surprise me. I was only fascinated by this huge animal raising something with its trunk. That seemed to me reminiscent of our modern circus today. Did such activities of fun and leisure with the use of wild animals exist in ancient times. So far we know the most clever use of elephants by ancient people was for the purpose of war battles. Glad to read your nice comments.

 

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I'm sure animals were used to provide amusement but I like to think that these coins are celebrating war elephants from Antiocus' army.


Antiocus VI, ca. 148–142/1 BC
Minted in Antioch - for some reason I didn't weigh and measure that coin.
Obv.: Radiate head of Antiochus VI, wreathed with ivy.
Rev.: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΝΤΙΟΧΟΥ / ΕΠΙΦΑΝΟΥΣ ∆ΙΟΝΥΣΟΥ; elephant walking left holding torch in trunk, ΣΤΑ above right, cornucopia right.

 

Here is my interpretation of this coin. You say torch, I say dead enemy.

 

Here is a nice coin from India where the Elephant grabs the goad and chases the handler. Really wanted this coin, but it ended up going for twice my bid :

VIJAYANAGAR: Devaraya II, 1426-1466, AE kasu (4.02g), Mitch-1998:630, elephant right, mahout running before, holding goad

 

WOW! The elephants must have been in charge of coin design that year

 

I only have one elephant.

 

Oooow, good idea ... can we do more than one?

 

It's not how many elephants you have that counts, but what they are made of. Silver, delicious!

 

ahaha lawyer, do you have any bronze coins? (if not, you're totally missing out)

Bronze is this year's gold

 

I have 63 coins... Two are bronze and cost me $0.00 USD, which is probably why I have them.

I do plan to eventually add some non-silver coins to my collection. Maybe in a year or so I'd love to set aside my hunt for ancient and medieval silver and pick up a few Byzantine, Indian, and Islamic gold coins.

I'm also not opposed to picking up some high quality billon (ie. silver rich billon). In fact, two of my coins are actually high silver content Billon. I'd love to add some more.

It may be cheaper to also do bronze, but I just like silver a lot. I was a huge silver bug back in the day and built up a huge stack of silver bars when silver was $5 an ounce. Sold it all when it got past $25. I guess my ancient and medieval silver obsession is due to my irrational love of the metal. I no longer stack silver bars. Now I collect ancient silver.

 

Yay, I have one to.

 

Elephant!



John

 

I never get tired of an elephant thread. This one arrived last week, and here's a bit of an analysis...

Seleucus IV, compelled by a heavy Roman war indemnity, sent his minister Heliodorus to Jerusalem to seize the Jewish temple treasury. The riches of the temple were renowned throughout the Levant by this time.

The Bible tells of a prophecy given by a messenger angel in Daniel 11:20 (NLT). The text states that Seleucus "will be remembered as the king who sent a tax collector to maintain the royal splendor." The deuterocanonical lends more to this in 2 Maccabees 3:2-3... "It came to pass that even the kings themselves, and the princes esteemed the place [the Temple in Jerusalem] worthy of the highest honour, and glorified the temple with very great gifts: So that Seleucus king of Asia allowed out of his revenues all the charges belonging to the ministry of the sacrifices." -wiki

It’s by no means clear what Heliodorus accomplished in Jerusalem, but when he returned to Antioch he assassinated Seleucus and briefly held power as a usurper until ousted by Antiochus IV Epiphanes. (I’m guessing that one way or another, Heliodorus made off with a lot of loot in Judaea - you don’t attempt a coup without substantial monetary resources.)

Elephants were an important part of the Seleucid war machine and are occasionally found on the coinage, sometimes in full, sometimes just the head, as on this type. The woman on the obverse is generally agreed to be Laodice IV, Seleucus’ sister and wife.



Seleukos IV, 187-175 BC
Æ serrate denomination C, 15mm, 3.2g, 12h; Antioch on Orontes.
Obv.: Veiled head of Laodice IV (?) right.
Rev.: BAΣIΛEΩΣ ΣEΛEYKOY; Head of elephant left, AT monogram to right.
Reference: SNG Spaer 914

 

TITUS
AR Denarius
OBVERSE: IMP TITVS CAES VESPASIAN AVG P M, laureate head right
REVERSE: TRP IX IMP XV COS VIII PP, elephant walking left
Struck at Rome, 80 AD
2.5g, 17mm
RIC 115


PHILIP I
AE Sestertius
OBVERSE: IMP M IVL PHILIPPVS AVG, laureate and draped bust right
REVERSE: AETERNITAS AVGG, elephant and driver walking left, SC in ex.
Struck at Rome, 247-8 AD
20.6g, 28mm
RIC 161a

 

Did someone order elephants?

Antiochus I
Mint: Antioch
AE 14
281 to 261 BC
Obvs: Macedonian shield with Seleukid anchor in central boss.
Revs: BAΣIΛEΩΣ ANTIOXOY, Horned elephant walking right. ME monogram and club above, jawbone in exergue.
18x19mm, 6.37g


Antiochus VI
Mint: Antioch
143/142 BC
AE Serrate
Obvs: No inscription. Antiochus radiate head right,
within dotted border.
Revs: BAΣIΛEΩΣ ANTIOXOY EΠIФANOYΣ
ΔIONYΣOY, Elephant walking left. Star behind, ΣTA
22x23mm, 7.94g


Antiochus VI
Mint: Antioch
143/142 BC
AE Serrate
Obvs: No inscription. Antiochus radiate head right,
within dotted border.
Revs: BAΣIΛEΩΣ ANTIOXOY EΠIФANOYΣ
ΔIONYΣOY, Elephant walking left. Cornucopia behind, ΣTA
22x23mm, 8.45g


Demetrios I
162 to 150 BC
Mint: Antioch
AE 17 serrate
Obvs: No inscription, head of bridled horse left.
Revs: BAΣΙΛEΩΣ ΔHMHTPIOY, Elephant head right.
17mm, 3.5g


Apameia
69 BC
AE 23
Obvs: Laureate head of Zeus right.
Revs: ΛπΛMEΩN THΣIEPΛΣ KΛIΛΣYΛOY, Elephant right, ΓMΣ in field. MM in ex.
23mm, 10.9g

 

neat elephants!

i've seen some dealers list that reverse type (7C's coin) as being an elephant holding a torch...looks sort of like that.

i don't have a torch elephant, but here is my first seleucid coin....

double animal score...

 

No elephants to show myself, but I love all the types. It was not too long ago that I learned about the Carthaginian general, Hannibal, crossing the Alps with his War Elephants to take on the Romans.

 

"Hannibal. Hannibal et Elephantum! Totus elephantum, millum elephantum, infinitatum elephantum!"
"Infinitatum elephantum est mathematicalis impossibilitatis."

(Five points to anyone who gets the reference...)

Anyway, after seeing the discussion of Satavahana elephant coins here recently, I just had to get my own. This one is missing a bit of the elephant's trunk, but it cost less than $20, so I count it as a pretty good deal:

 

Very cool! I need a square coin or two in my collection. I've had my eye on an Indo-Scythian coin for a while.