@DonnaML......Nice looking coins!...... Here's a couple of my favourites... Shahis of Ohind AE Jital of Vakka Deva around 870 AD Chalukyas of Gujarat - Rana Hastin (900-1000 AD)-Silver Dirham
Congrats on the 9-month anniversary - you’ve been a happy addition to the family - as well as the excellent coins. I love the baby elephant on the Septimius, and the A-Pi is a great example of the type! JULIUS CAESAR AR Denarius. 3.91g, 18.4mm. Military mint traveling with Caesar (in northern Italy?), April - August 49 BC. Crawford 443/1; Sydenham 1006. O: Elephant advancing right, trampling on horned serpent; CAESAR below. R: Emblems of the pontificate: simpulum, aspergillum, securis, and apex. Ex Michael Kelly Collection SELEUKID KINGDOM Antiochos VI Dionysos AE24 Serrate. 7.03g, 23.8mm. Antioch mint, circa 143-142 BC. SC 2006; HGC 9, 1043. O: Radiate and diademed head of Antiochos VI right, wreathed with ivy. R: BAΣIΛEΩΣ ANTIOXOY above elephant walking left; ΣTA above cornucopiae to right, EΠIΦANOYΣ ∆IONYΣOY below. INDIA, Post-Mauryan (Punjab) AE 1 1/2 Karshapana. 12.21g, 21.2mm x 19mm. Taxila mint, circa 185-168 BC. AIC 12-3; MACW 4401-3. O: Elephant walking right; three-arched hill surmounted by crescent above. R: Lion standing right; swastika above, three-arched hill surmounted by crescent to left; all within incuse square. CARACALLA AE33. 21.27g, 33.5mm. CILICIA, Tarsus, struck circa AD 215. SNG France 1515. O: [AVT KAI M AVP CEVHPOC ANTΩNEI]NOC CEB , laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right; Π-Π in fields. R: [ANTΩNIANHC CEVH AΔP MHT TAPCOV ΓB], Elephant standing left, head turned slightly facing; above, Ciliarch crown inscribed O MAK K.
MORE EPHALANTS Seleukid Seleukos I 312-280 BCE AR Tet 14.46g Seleukia on Tigris. Zeus - Athena driving a quadriga of 4 horned elephants SC 130 RR Julius Caesar AR Denarius 49 BCE Traveling Mint Elephant trampling snake-Pontificates Sear 1399 Craw 443-1 Seleukid Seleukos I 312-280 BCE AE 20 Athena-Elephant Spaer 129
Elephant head! This one is ex-Houghton: Laodike IV, wife and sister of both Seleucus IV and Antiochus IV. Selucia in Pieria, 175-164 BC. AE 3.33 gm; 15 mm. Obv: Veiled bust of Laodike IV, r. Rev: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΝΤΙΟΧΟΥ (of King Antiochus), elephant head l.; prow. Refs: Houghton, CSE 113 (plate coin); Forrer 183.
I doubt that the elephant on the Septimius Severus coin was intended to be a baby, given that the ones on other examples of the type that people have posted all look full-grown, but it certainly does look like a baby, doesn't it? I'm sure that's why I found it so appealing. Your Caesar is great, as are the others people have shown. I've been tempted to buy an example a number of times, but it's difficult to get a really nice example for less than $1000 (and up!). I have never spent that much on a single coin, and if I were ever to do so, I'm not sure that that would be the coin type I would choose.
So does anyone have an answer to my question about what in the world is going on with the elephant's left hind leg and flank on the Cecilius Metullus Pius coin?
Um. Yes. This was actually a coin from a Roman Vending Machine at the Sesame Street games... It was Snuffleupagus. He is here with his family.
Could be! Personally, though, I think the answer is that a predatory dinosaur took a bite out of the elephant's left side, exposing the bone of its leg. Didn't they still have those in ancient Rome?
OMG. You reminded me of a Navy Commander friend of mine who was stationed in Ethiopia, prior to the base being turned over to Russia during the 70's. He said that he remembers the local tribesmen with their herds of cattle having deep cuts out of their hind leg muscles. They did not have refrigeration to keep the meat, It was their way of cutting out the meat to eat, but keeping the cattle alive. Dooah!
Nice pachyderms, Donna (and everybody else). Mine are pretty shabby: Antoninus Pius, Philip the Arab (partial) and a Seleucid:
Donna- Simply beautiful coins. I like the stork as well; much better detail than what is sometimes seen. Doug, I like the Gautamiputra from the 2nd century as well.
Thanks. And yes, I've noticed, in looking at quite a few examples, that the stork on some of the dies is very sloppily rendered.
@ @DonnaML, from here, the gouge almost looks as if it could be a weak strike of a countermark. ...Now tell me how wrong I was! Your speculation about the interval between the 3rd c. BCE (Punic Wars, and all that), and the rendering of the elephant on your example, involuntarily evoked a medieval European example of a similar level of, may we say, visual anachronism, from the 13th century. The chronicler and illustrator Matthew Paris tried to draw an elephant, in the context of Friedrich II's wars in northern Italy. ...At a comparable remove in space as your RR denarius is likely to have been in time. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Matthew_Paris_Elephant_from_Parker_MS_16_fol_151v.jpg
I've seen far worse renditions of an elephant than that drawing! In terms of the "gouge" in the elephant's side, almost every single example seems to have it to a greater or lesser extent. See the examples at the CNG Archives: https://www.cngcoins.com/Search.asp..._TYPE_ID=2&VIEW_TYPE=0&MAX_COUNT=10000&PAGE=1 But I'm afraid that looking at other examples doesn't help me figure out what they're supposed to represent.
@DonnaML, many thanks for the enlightening link. ...And, anyway --takes some of us longer-- for RR denarii, a 'countermark' would be its own kind of anachronism. Even in real time, it smelled wrong....
@Marsyas Mike, I'm Not Touching 'anatomically correct,' in spite of repeated, less than wholly voluntary subjection to 'Beavis and Butthead'....
I agree that probably wasn't what was intended, but yours just looks too cute, and baby elephant is all I see. If I ever start hunting in earnest for one of these, I'll definitely be looking for a 'juvenile' elephant. Thanks! The prices for these, especially the higher grade ones, do seem to be climbing all the time. I don't consider mine one of these high grade example, but I was very happy to win it two years ago for about $370. The elephants also come in different styles: the bulkier more imposing version with the clear armored bands worn on the legs, and the cruder more dumpy style like mine. I'd still like to get one in the other style. There was an interesting thread posted about this type here a few years ago, with a focus on prices.