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

Trajan AR Denarius, 106 AD, Rome Mint. Obv. Laureate bust right; IMP TRAIANO AVG GER DAC P M TRP COS V P P / Rev. Captive Dacian in peaked cap with wide brim, seated right on shield in mournful attitude with left elbow on raised left knee, and face resting in left hand; below, curved Dacian sword (falx) right; SPQR OPTIMO PRINCIPI. RIC II 219 (http://numismatics.org/ocre/results?q=RIC+II+Trajan+219); RSC II 529; Sear RCV II 3168 (obv. var.); BMCRE 175 (https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_R-11584). 17 mm., 3.02 g., 6 h.



Plus this NYINC acquisition, which I haven't fully written up yet:

Trajan denarius, Cos V, laureate head right / Dacian seated left on pile of arms in attitude of mourning, DAC CAP in exergue. RIC 98, RSC II Trajan 120(a). Black patina.



[I've never been quite clear as to whether either of these is supposed to be a captive Dacian, in which case at least the first one is probably male, or if both are supposed to be the personification of Dacia herself, in which case both are female. Thoughts are welcome!]

Next, a coin depicting a Canopus jar, such as this one -- my third full write-up of coins I bought at the NYINC last week:

Antoninus Pius, Billon Tetradrachm, Year 2 (138-139 AD), Alexandria, Egypt Mint. Obv. Bare head right with traces of drapery, ΑVΤ Κ Τ ΑΙΛ ΑΔΡ ΑΝΤѠNΙΝΟϹ ƐVϹƐΒ / Rev. Canopic Jar of Osiris (a/k/a Osiris-Canopus Jar)*, bearded, right, standing on cushion, crowned with horns, disk, plumes, and uraei; body of jar with decorations including diagonal lines beginning in upper left, and, in upper right, horizontal lines enclosed with border of dots in shape of shield [see https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coin/120672 for specimen (No. 26 of RPC IV.4 13409) with virtually identical decorations on body of jar], ƐΤΟ-VϹ around from 8:00, Β (Year 2) in right field beneath end of legend. RPC IV.4 Online 13409 (temp.) (see https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/4/13409); Emmett 1373.2, BMC 16 Alexandria 992 at p. 115; Milne 1591 at p. 40 (ill. at Pl. I) [body described as “entirely draped,” differentiated at p. 136 from other specimens]; K&G 35.6 (ill. p. 158); Sear RCV II 4339 (ill. p. 241). Purchased on Jan. 14, 2022 from Keith Candiotti (Miami, FL) at NYINC 2022. 22 mm., 9.84 g.



*See https://egypt-museum.com/post/189683370661/osiris-canopus-jar#gsc.tab=0, with photos of the Osiris-Canopus Jar from Hadrian’s Villa, now at the Vatican Museum, describing it as “A Canopic jar with the head of Osiris emerging from it. In the cult of Isis and Serapis, during the Ptolemaic and Roman periods. Osiris-Canopus jars (also known as Osiris-Hydreios) were carried by priests during processions. As they are solid, each symbolically carried water from the Nile, fertility that originated from the god Osiris, one of Egypt’s earliest fertility gods. Osiris-Canopus was named after the ancient Egyptian town of Canopus, on the western bank at the mouth of the westernmost branch of the Delta known as the Canopic or Heracleotic branch – not far from Alexandria. Roman Period, ca. 131-138 AD. Grey basalt, from Hadrian’s Villa. Now in the Vatican Museums (Gregoriano Egizio). 22852.”

 

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@DonnaML - the traditional interpretation for these denarii types (I have none - shame, shame, shame) is that they represent a Dacian soldier on the reverse.
The weapon could also be a sica, which is, as I am sure you know, a smaller falx.

Congratulations for the first coin especially, I love it.

 

Thanks. The first one has been my favorite Trajan denarius for a while -- both because of the great portrait of Trajan, and because of the propagandistic Roman portrayal of the scarecrow-like Dacian on the reverse, with his matchstick arms and legs! If the Dacians had really all looked like that, there wouldn't have needed to be more than one Dacian War -- it would have been like the U.S. invasion of Grenada!

 

Well, I will not take this personally (I wish I'd look more like a scarecrow rather than being overweight)
There is not much known about how Dacians looked in general, except that men liked wearing long hair and beards.
The noble men (tarabostes) wore this kind of hats, called pileus

Not having coins, at least not with portraits, doesn't help.

Here is a commemorative coin obverse from 1983 (although the year on the coin is 1980), showing an image of the great Dacian king Burebista (reigned 82-44 AD). Under his reign the Dacian kingdom controlled the largest historically territory.

Actually the project showed him with much longer hair, but because of the time when this coin was minted, long hair and beard could have been interpreted as hippie "decadence" so this was the final shape.

Leaving the intermezzo - next coin in the game remains, of course, a coin depicting a Canopus jar - posting the same picture to avoid the next poster to scroll.

 

12 hrs
Alexander the Great from Babylon

Next, a coin from a city founded in the bronze age (3300 BC – 1200 BC).

 

@JayAg47 ... not sure if you are not going to get your next request in a Western coin sense.


China ANCIENT
Cowrie -
Shang Dynasty (1600 BCE - 1046 BCE)
BONE
2 holes for clothing or funeral bier
20mm
Hartill 1-2v Coole 51-66
Ex: Scott Semans CoinCoin



China
Shang Dynasty 1766-1154 BCE or Zhou Dynasty
Ghost Face Ant Nose
AE 1.65g
Hartill 1.4
Holed (filled with debris)

Next: Your earliest coin BCE

 

next: your earliest coin

 

I meant a coin minted from a bronze aged city, not a coin from the bronze age itself.

 

Celtic Imitation of a Parion Archaic
c. 480 BCE

​

Next: Your oldest imitation or counterfeit

 

Danubian imitation of Alexander tetradrachm.

next, anything Danube

 

Celtic DANUBIAN

Kapostaler Type Drachm (2,42g). Av. Head of Zeus right / Rv. Horseman left, wearing high-crested helmet. Ref.: Lanz 819 (Kapostal type). VF
Next up: Celtic

 

Celtic. Northern Gaul, Aulerci Eburovices. Circa 1st century BC. Potin Unit (17mm, 3.15g, 4h). Obv: Very crude head left, with four pellets forming face. Ref: Boar standing right, three pellets below. Ref: CCCBM III S465; DT 2480. Good Very Fine, nice green black patina.

Next: British Celtic.

 

So I imagine you had something more like this in mind?

Trajan AR Tetradrachm, 100 AD, Phoenicia, Tyre. Obv. Laureate head of Trajan right; behind, ear of grain in left field; to right, club in right field; below, eagle with folded wings standing right, ΑΥΤΟΚΡ ΚΑΙϹ ΝΕΡ ΤΡΑΙΑΝΟϹ ϹΕΒ ΓΕΡΜ / Rev. Laureate bust of Melqart (as Herakles) right, lion’s skin tied at neck, ΔΗΜΑΡΧ ΕΞ ΥΠΑΤ Γ [= COS III]. RPC [Roman Provincial Coinage] Vol. II (2015); RPC Online at https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/3/3526; Prieur 1482 [Prieur, Michel and Karin, Syro-Phoenician Tetradrachms (London, 2000)]; McAlee 452 [McAlee, Richard, The Coins of Roman Antioch (2007)]. 27 mm., 14.25 g.



Even Athens would have qualified. Or Jerusalem. (Lists of oldest continuously-inhabited cities aren't hard to find, but not all that many of those cities minted coins so far as I know.)

Next: British Celtic.

 

A British Celtic coin was my number one in last years top ten...
Britannia, Trinovantes & Catuvellauni. Cunobelin. Circa 9-41 AD. AE Unit (2.437 g, 14mm).
Obv: Winged head left, CVNO in front, BELIN behind.
Rev: Metal worker, presumably the smith god known as Sucellus in parts of Gaul, sitting on a solid seat with a detached upright back, holding an L-shaped hammer in his right hand, left hand holding a metal bowl, there is always a distinct bun of hair behind the smith's head, TASCIO (Tascionus his father) behind, beaded border.
Van Arsdell 2097; ABC 2969; SCBC 342. Hobbs 1972-83;..VF.


Next.......Celtic Silver

 

Next up: Herakles

 

I think this is Herakles. Next theme: Stag

 

next: Hercules

 

Next up: coin that with our modern sensibilities looks EVIL

 

AncientNumis, doesn't look like Hercules/Heracles
anyway heres a stag:



next: bee

 

That’s what I thought too at first, but apparently it is(definitely a very interesting depiction of him):
https://www.acsearch.info/search.ht...de=1&fr=1&it=1&es=1&ot=1&currency=usd&order=0