Featured Finally succumbed to the Greeks! The 12 Olympian gods..

No more Hermes/Mercury or Griffin coins out there?

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Not too great, but...

THRACE, Abdera. Circa 350-323 BC. Æ (15mm, 2.49 gm, 10h). Obv: Griffin lying right on club; (ΘE) below. Rev: Male head right within linear square. AMNG 219; SNG Copenhagen 374 var. (letters on obv.)

 

HERMES


Sicily Menainon Hermes in petasos, kerykeion caduceus, two pellets Hexas

MERCURY


RR Anon AE Semuncia 217-215 19mm Mercury Prow Sear 620 Craw 38-7

 

GRIFFIN


Roman Republic
L Papius serratus
79 BCE
Juno Sospita goat skin
JUG Griffon
Sear 311 Craw 384-1



Sicily Kainon AE Tetras 20mm 6.7g Griffon - Horse Prancing SNG COP 133

 

Nice coins.....Cool Griffins!...
@Alegandron .....Wonderful portrait on the Mercury Prow, love the hair and petasos detail...Great coin!

 

I can offer a micro Hermes as countermark on an unknown host...


16,5 mm. 5,76 gr.

That leaves about 5 mm. for Hermes...

 

Here's a coin of Mercury!


Gallienus, AD 253-268.
Roman silvered billon antoninianus, 4.25 g, 21.3 mm, 11 h.
Antioch, AD 267.
Obv: GALLIENVS AVG, radiate and cuirassed bust, right.
Rev: FIDES AVG, Mercury standing right, holding marsupium (purse) and caduceus; PXV (=TR P XV) in exergue.
Refs: RIC 607F; Göbl 1667k; Cohen 219; RCV 10212; Hunter p. lxx.

 

I was looking at the reverse, and quickly read the reverse description. My dyslexic mind read it as “marshmallow”. Boy was I confused, and thought that is a HUGE melting marshmallow... what a mess!
It was the best chuckle of the day. Needed it. Thank you.

 

@Ignoramus Maximus ....Very nice! Amazing detail on the Hermes portrait!...The host coin resembles a semi with prow reverse?..Any ideas on the C/M above?
@Roman Collector ...That's a cool looking Gallienus!... I'm trying to slowly run a secondary set of Roman coinage alongside the Greek bronzes and had this same type in my want list for a month or so but the day I went to buy it it had sold and only the day before! I really like this type coin plus I don't have a sole reign Gallienus....

 

You would enjoy collecting a set of the 12 Dii Consentes!

 

IONIA, Phokaia
AE18. 6.0g, 18mm. IONIA, Phokaia, circa 3rd-2nd centuries BC. Herakles, magistrate. SNG Cop 1042 var. (magistrate's name); BMC 99 var. (same). O: Head of Hermes wearing petasos left. R: Forepart of griffin with curled wings left, HPAK below.

 

Ok, gotta WEIRD one:


Roman Republic
Julius Bursio moneyer
85 BCE
AR Denarius
Male head, with the attributes of Apollo, Mercury and Neptune. EAR device behind-
Quadriga
Sear 268 Craw 352-1a

 

Here's my one Hermes:

Macrinus and Diadumenian Caesar, AE Pentassarion [5 Assaria], 217-218 AD, Marcianopolis Mint, Moesia Inferior (Pontianus, consular legate). Obv. Confronted heads of Macrinus, laureate, right, and Diadumenian, bareheaded, left, [AVT K OΠE]Λ CEV MAKPEINOC K M OΠEΛ ANTΩNEINOC [bracketed portion off flan][ = Imperator, Caesar, Opellius Augustus Macrinus, Caesar Marcus Opellius Antoninus ] / Rev. Hermes standing facing, head left, holding purse in extended right hand and caduceus in left hand; chlamys hanging over left arm; E [mark of value for “5”] in right field, VΠ ΠONTIANOV MAP-KIANOΠOΛEITΩN (ΩN ligate) [ = Consular Legate Pontianus, (coin) of the people of Markianopolis]. AMNG I/I 740 [Behrendt Pick, Die antiken Münzen von Dacien und Moesien, Die antiken Münzen Nord-Griechenlands Vol. I/I (Berlin, 1898) at pp. 240-241]; BMC 3 Thrace 35 [R.S. Poole, ed. A Catalog of the Greek Coins in the British Museum, Vol. 3, The Tauric Chersonese, Sarmatia, Dacia, Moesia, Thrace, etc. (London, 1877) at p. 32]; Hristova & Jekov 6.24.10.3 [Nina Hristova & Gospodin Jekov, The Local Coinage of the Roman Empire - Moesia Inferior, I - III c. A.D., MARCIANOPOLIS (Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria 2006)]; Varbanov (Eng.) Vol. I, 1192 var. (E to left) [Ivan Varbanov, Greek Imperial Coins And Their Values, Volume I: Dacia, Moesia Superior & Moesia Inferior (English Edition) (Bourgas, Bulgaria, 2005)]; Diadumenian.com /marcianopolis5.html, No. Mar5.33d. 25 mm, 12.89 g. Ex: Dr. Paul Rynearson (ca. 2003); Ex: Kirk Davis, Cat # 75, Fall 2020, Lot 62. (Coin is double die match to Lot 696, CNG Triton XII Auction, Jan. 5, 2009.)


Here's a Republican gryphon, with a Juno obverse:

Roman Republic, L. Papius, AR Serrate Denarius, 79 BCE. Obv. Head of Juno Sospita right, wearing goat skin; control-symbol of lyre behind/ Rev. Gryphon prancing right, control-symbol of lyre-key below, L. PAPI in exergue. Crawford 384/1 (see also Crawford Vol. II Plate LXVII, control-symbol 127 & p. 788), RSC I Papia 1, Sear RCV I 311 (ill.), Harlan, RRM I Ch. 7 at pp. 32-35, BMCRR Rome 2977-3095 [control-symbol pair not in BMCRR]. 19 mm., 3.79 g., 9 h.

 

My comment to @Roman Collector

So THAT's what a MARSHMALLOW looks like...

Thanks, @DonnaML

(LOL, and yes, Donna, I truly am severely dyslexic... I can say bad things about myself.)

 

No, that's a marsupial. Everyone knows that Hermes always carries one around.

 

LOL, VERY good!

 

.....Certainly will thanks...Great thread, found it really interesting...That's a lovely set you've got there...

@DonnaML .....Wow!..What a stunning coin from Marcianopolis the detail is incredible!...I spent a bit of time zooming in and cutting out just to see how skilled this engraver was....Beautiful coin thanks for sharing...

@zumbly .....Cool coin!...Any idea which magistrate the legend is referring to? Certainly has different lettering but I can't seem to find any reference..

 

I haven’t found it in any reference either. It appears to be HPAK, so a Herak-. Perhaps Herakletos or Herakleides?

 

Thank you. I took some additional photos myself, for essentially the same reason of wanting to be able to see the coin, including the legends, in greater detail:





I know that Roman Provincial coins have a reputation of being significantly cruder in general than Roman Imperial coins. I have learned that that is not always an accurate characterization.

 

Thanks to all who posted their examples of Hermes/Mercury/Griffon coins previously ...Some beautiful coins and again I learnt a great deal reading up on them.

And the next....We're geting close to the 1/2 dozen here!
Again this guy along with Zeus, must be up there as one of the most portrayed portraits on ancient coinage? Picked this one as I really liked the depiction of Athena Itonia on the reverse....

APOLLO
He was born on the Greek island of Delos..Son of Zeus and Leto-(Daughter of the Titans Coeus and Phoebe).
God of the oracles, Prophecy, healing, archery, music and arts, sunlight, knowledge, herds and flocks, and protection of the young...
Symbols associated with him are the Lyre, Laurel wreath, Python, Raven and bow and arrow.
His sacred animals were the wolf, swan and dolphin...
He is also one of the few Greek gods whose name was kept by the Romans..

This coin is from the Thessalian League which was an alliance of city-states and tribes in the Thessalian plains of Greece the capital being Larissa and was run by a few aristocratic Thessalian families (Aleuadae and Skopadae).. This type coin commenced following the great victory of the Roman general Flamininus over Philip V of Macedon, in 197 B.C., the freedom of the Greeks was proclaimed at Corinth and a number of new autonomous coinages were initiated. Those in the name of the Thessali were struck probably at Larissa.

As always please feel free to post your Apollo coins!

Here's the coin....
Thessalian League. Around 197-150 BC. AE Trichalcon (7.64 gm, 19mm). Hippolo(chos), magistrates.
Obverse: laureate head of Apollo right.
Reverse: ΘEΣΣA ΛΩN (THESSALON) in two lines, Athena Itonia striding right, hurling spear held in her right hand, shield on her left arm; ΙΠΠ-ΟΛΟ (IPOLLO magistrates name) over spear and A-PI across central field.
BCD Thessaly II, 900.3; Rogers 21.SNG Copenhagen 315.

Here's a breakdown of the reverse legend...But I'm unsure what the A-PI across the central field signifies?

Here's the five together hope you like'em.........Paul