Featured Follow the coin theme GAME - ancient edition - post ‘em if you got ‘em

Rarely seen...
AV Half Stater ND Vani Mint
Kolchis
struck by Basternae circa 150BC
next: coin struck by Seuvi

 

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12 hours. How about a Hecate?


Severan period, AD 193-235.
Semi-autonomous Æ 14. mm, 1.46 g, 6 h.
Phrygia, Apameia.
Obv: ΑΠΑ-ΜЄΙΑ, draped bust of Tyche of Apameia, right.
Rev: CΩ-TЄI-PA, triple-bodied Hecate-Soteira standing facing, each wearing kalathos and holding torches.
Refs: BMC 25.88,110-13; SNG von Aulock 3475; SNG München 131; Sear Gr. Imp. 5065.

Next: semi-autonomous Roman provincial.

 

PISIDIA. Termessus Major. Pseudo-autonomous issue. AE (Bronze, 27 mm, 14.74 g, 12 h), struck under Gallienus, circa 260/1. TЄPMHC[CЄΩN] Laureate head of Zeus Solymos to right. Rev. TΩ[N MЄIZ]ONΩN Emperor, in military attire, standing front, head to left, crowning trophy with his right hand and holding eagle-tipped scepter in his left; at feet to left, eagle standing left, head right. SNG Paris 2212. SNG von Aulock 5358. A lovely piece with attractive earthen highlights. Very fine. Ex Leu auction 8/21



Next: Zeus from a specific city

 

Seleucia Pieria, Trajan. On the reverse ZЄYC KACIOC, Zeus of Mount Kasios, the tutelar topic deity of the city. It is not a anthropomorphic Zeus but a conical baetyl (or black stone) under a tetrastyle shrine.

NEXT : another baetyl.

 

AR Denarius, Elagabalus 218-222.

Obverse: Laureate bust of Elagabalus right

Reverse: Baetyl, in quadriga with horses prancing right



Next: Another Baetyl (I like Baetyls)

 

Roman Republic, M. Nonius Sufenas*, AR Denarius, 59 BCE (or 57 BCE according to Hersh and Walker & Harlan), Rome Mint. Obv. Bearded head of Saturn right, with long hair; behind head, harpa with conical stone (baetyl)** beneath it* and S•C upwards above it; before, SVFENAS downwards / Rev. Roma seated left on pile of shields, holding scepter in right hand and sword in left hand; behind, Victory left, crowning Roma with wreath and holding palm-branch extending behind her over right shoulder; around to left from 4:00, PR•L• - V• - P•F; in exergue, SEX•NONI [The two parts of the reverse legend, together, stand for Sex. Noni[us] pr[aetor] L[udi] V[ictoriae] p[rimus] f[ecit, meaning Sex. Nonius, praetor, first held the games of Victory.].*** Crawford 421/1, RSC Nonia1(ill.), BMCRR 3820, Sear RCV I 377 (ill.), Sydenham 885, Harlan, RRM II Ch. 13 at pp. 104-111[Harlan, Michael, Roman Republican Moneyers and their Coins 63 BCE - 49 BCE (2d ed. 2015)], RBW Collection 1517. 19 mm., 3.95 g.


*”The moneyer is doubtless M. Nonius Sufenas, Pr. 55.” Crawford Vol. I p. 445.But see Liv Mariah Yarrow, The Roman Republic to 49 BCE: Using Coins as Sources (2021), Fig. 3.53 at p. 158, suggesting that in the alternative, the moneyer was “perhaps his son.” M. Nonius Sufenas’s “father, Sextus Nonius Sufenas, was Sulla’s nephew, making the moneyer Faustus’ first cousin once removed.” Id. (Faustus was Sulla’s son.) See also Harlan RRM II at pp. 109-110.

After his term as moneyer, Nonius Sufenas is mentioned in one of Cicero’s letters to Atticus in July 54 BCE: “Now for the news at Rome. On the fourth of July, Sufenas and Cato were acquitted, Procilius condemned. Clearly our stern judges care not one whit about bribery, the elections, the interregnum, treason, or the whole Republic. Cicero, Ad Atticum, 4.15.4; see Harlan RRM II at pp. 104-106 for a proposed identification of the election which was the subject of the prosecution, namely the consular election of 56 BCE.

** See Harlan RRM II at p. 107: "The head of Saturn clearly identified by the harpa and the conical stone beside his head is on the obverse of the coin. The harpa recalls the castration of his father Uranus that resulted in the birth of Venus and the conical stone recalls that Saturn swallowed a stone thinking it was his infant son Jupiter whom he was trying to keep from growing up to replace him.
Saturn, always identified by the harpa, appeared five times on Republican denarii." Harlan suggests (id. pp. 107-108) that, as on other coins on which Saturn appears, his image was intended to signal the moneyer’s past or present position holding office as urban quaestor, and, as such, “responsible for the treasury located in Saturn’s temple.”

***This reverse legend, as illustrated by the reverse image, “records the first celebration by an ancestor of the moneyer of the Ludi Victoriae of Sulla.” Crawford Vol. I pp. 445-446. (That ancestor was the aforementioned Sextus Nonius Sufenas, Pr. 81 BCE, the moneyer’s father [or grandfather] and Sulla’s nephew.)

Next, another depiction of Roma and Victory together.

 

Next up: galatian shield

 

galatian shield is in front of the eagle
next: another shield

 

Hi All,

Not your usual Ptolemaic silver denomination, not your usual Ptolemaic mint city ... but it's got a Galatian shield.



Provenance: CPE Plate Coin. Ex Frank Sternberg Auction 27 (7-8 Nov 1994), Lot #046, correctly attributed. This coin is also pictured as fig 9 in CC Lorber (EUROS, 2014).

EDIT: Ahhhh, waited too long. Next is what @Andres2 wanted, another shield.

- Broucheion

 

Thank you, sir. Don't mind if I do:

Next up: Demetrius Poliorketes

 

next: diadoch

 

Diadoch: Lysimachos
State, City: Thrace, Lysimacheia
Coin: Silver Tetradrachm
Obv.: Diademed head of the deified Alexander with horn of Ammon right
Rev.: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΛΥΣΙΜΑΧΟΥ - Athena enthroned left, holding Nike, resting left elbow on shield, spear behind; lion's head before, two monograms in exergue
Mint: (After 280 BC)
Wt./Size/Axis: 16.95g / 30mm / 10h
References:

• cf ANSMN 13, 21
• HGC Vol. 3, part 2, 1493 (this coin)

Provenances:

• Tannenbaum Collection

Acquisition: Roma Numismatics Online auction E-Sale 1 #153 31-Aug-2013



Next - another tetradrachm

 

Next: another portrait/bust of a Seleucid king.

 

SELEUKID EMPIRE, Antiochos VII Euergetes (Sidetes), 138-129 BC, AR Tetradrachm, Tyre mint, dated SE 182 (131/30 BC)
Obv: Diademed and draped bust right
Rev: ANTIOXOY BAΣIΛEΩΣ, Eagle standing left on prow, with palm frond over shoulder; to left, monogram above club surmounted by Tyre monogram; to right, monogram above BΠP (date); monogram between legs
Ref: SC 2109.10c; HGC 9, 1074; DCA 198

Next: Seleucid - any metal, any denomination

 

Next up: bottle cap

 

Seleucid bottle cap with an elephant! 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, elephant head l.; prow.
Refs: Houghton, CSE 113 (plate coin); Forrer 183.

Next: Elephant head.

 

Seated Ganesha, the elephant-headed Hindu god, remover of obstacles! Although my example is a humble one.

Next- Hindu god/goddess.

 

next: another hindu god/goddess

 

Yaudheya republican confederacy, 200-300 AD, with the Hindu god of war Kartikeya, reverse has a goddess with a conch shell. Legend around in Brahmi: Yaudheya Ganasya Jaya ("Victory to the Yaudheya People").

Next, a non Abrahamic deity still actively worshiped (Preferably non-Hindu as well if you can).

 

12 hours

Qarakhanids (Kara-Khanid) Khanate
Issued under Nasir bin Ali
993-1012 AD
AE Fals | 3.27 grams | 27mm wide
Ferghana Mint
Ref: Album #3303

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Next: a coin from the Silk Road (overland or maritime)