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

Fourree


Persia Achaemenid Empire 4th C BCE FOURREE 15mm Siglos Persian hero-king in running incuse

Next: Achaemenid Empire

 

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Next: city walls; real or part of a crown.

 

Phrygia, Bruzus. Pseudo-autonomous AE (Circa 2nd-3rd centuries).
Obv: BΡΟYΖΟC. Turreted head of Tyche right.
Rev: BPOYZHNΩN. Hermes standing left, holding purse and caduceus.
SNG v. Aulock -; Isegrim -.

Next: Hermes.

 

THRACE, ABDERA
Tetrobol
OBVERSE: Griffin springing left
REVERSE: Magistrate's name around linear border, within which head of Hermes l., caduceus before; all in incuse square
Struck at Abdera 411-385 BC
2.780g, 15mm
May 279

Next: Peculiar headgear

 

Cilicia, Olba. Æ15. Dated year 2 = AD 11-12.
Obv: Ajax, high priest and toparch. Head of Ajax as Hermes, wearing close-fitting cap right.
Reign: Augustus. Magistrate: Ajax (high priest and toparch)
Rev: ΑΙΑΝ-ΤΟΣE ΤΕY-B-ΚΡΟY.
SNG Levante 633

Next: Someone other than Caesar, emperor or empress on a Roman obverse.

 

I assume you mean a Roman Imperial obverse, because every Roman Republican obverse would qualify!

Here's one:

Julia Titi Flavia (daughter of Titus), AE Dupondius 80-81 AD, Rome Mint. Obv. Draped bust right with hair bundled high in front and coiled in chignon high in back, IVLIA IMP T AVG F AVGVSTA/ Rev. Vesta seated left, holding palladium in right hand and long transverse scepter in left arm, VESTA below, S C across fields. RIC II-1 398 at. p. 223 (Titus) (2007 ed.), old RIC II 180 (Titus) (1926 ed.), Sear RCV I 2617 (ill.), BMCRE Titus 257. 26 mm., 12.23 g., 6 h.



Next, another female member of the Imperial family who was not an empress but was depicted nonetheless on a Roman Imperial coin. (Hint: there are plenty of mothers, daughters, and even grandmothers and sisters who qualify.)

 

My coin of Helena. Old photos, still need to take new ones.

Helena, Roman Empire
AE follis
Obv: FL HELENA AVGVSTA, diademed, draped bust right
Rev: SECVRITAS REIPVBLICE, Securitas standing left, lowering branch and raising hem of robe
Mint: London
Mintmark: PLON (in ex.)
Ref: RIC VII 299



Next theme: Magnus Maximus

 

Next up: any type of fortification

 

Michael VIII Palaeologus, AD 1261-1282. AV Hyperpyron Nomisma (27mm, 4.19g, 6h). Constantinople mint. Obv: Half-length figure of the Theotokos, orans, within city walls with six towers; sigla: triple pellets flanking uppermost tower. Rev: Michael facing, kneeling slightly right and being presented by archangel Michael to Christ seated facing to right and holding scroll; O between. Ref: DOC –; PCPC 4 (sigla 26); SB 2242. Very Fine, toned, light scratches. Ex CNG eAuction 482 (28 Fe6 2020), Lot 585.

Next: More Byzantine Gold.

 

Next: one good side... one BAD

 

Gallienus, AD 253-268.
Roman billon tetradrachm, 8.70 g, 23 mm.
Egypt, Alexandria, AD 266/7.Obv: AVT K Π ΛIK ΓAΛΛIHNOC CЄB, laureate and cuirassed bust right.
Rev: Homonoia standing left, raising hand and holding double cornucopia; L IΔ (= regnal year 14) before, palm frond behind.
Refs: Dattari (Savio) 5246; BMCG 2186; Cologne 2937; Milne 4136; RCV 10580; Emmett 3816.14; K&G 90.93.

Next: Unnaturally long neck.

 

Easy: Claudius.

Next, a bronze provincial Claudius (the first, not II)

 

Oops

Only a tetradrachm, no bronze coin.

Continue

 

How about another 1st Cent RPC...of Claudius:

This one is sometimes called an Imperial, but the type is listed in RPC I, #1256; in fact, this example is cited (but with the wrong photo from BCD Peloponnesos I, example 32, not BCD Pelo II, example 24, which should show this one, and should indicate GERM not GERMANICVS subtype).

Roman Provincial. Achaea, Patras. Claudius AE As or Assarion (11.56g, 25mm, 1h). Legionary Issue.

Obv: TI CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GERM. Head of Claudius left.
Rev: COL A A PATR X XII. Aquila between two standards.

Ref: BCD Peloponnesos II 2782 (this coin); RPC 1256 (ex. 24 = this coin, wrong photo?).
Prov: Ex-BCD Collection, CNG 81 (BCD Peloponnesos Part II, 20 May 2009), Lot 2782; Merani Collection, CNG EA 490 (21 April 2021), 70.

Notes: Referencing Legio X and XII of Augustus, whose veterans settled at Colonia Augusta Achaica Patrensis.​

NEXT: ANOTHER LEGIONARY ISSUE (whether RPC, RIC, RRC, Imperatorial -- whatever fits)

 

Here's a sestertius of Philip I, with a legionary standard theme on the reverse. I'm not sure if this qualifies as a legionary issue, since this is an imperial coin, minted in Rome.

RIC 171a; Cohen 51

17.43 grams



Next: A coin featuring Ares, for April! If finding an Aries proves too high a price, then Mars, April's ruling planet, will suffice.

 

next: another Mars

 

How about a "Mars AND/OR Ares"? This one is usually called Ares (or Ares/Mars), I assume because the Bretti (far S. Italy) were "Hellenized" and the legend is in Greek (though they were Oscan speakers), but they had also long been allies of Rome (reluctantly, one might say). They'd switched sides to Hannibal briefly, but were now back in Roman control. (Depending whose dating you accept.) Sometimes it's called an AE Didrachm (wartime, no AR), sometimes an AE Reduced Sextans on the Roman system.

This is a coin for which Romanized users presumably saw Mars, the Hellenized Ares. (What did the Oscan-speakers call him?)

Interestingly, the field mark is unpublished as far as I can tell (and no sale records I can find). CNG called it "uncertain symbol (lyre?)" but it's clearly a plow.

Ex-Miguel Muñoz Collection (Part Three), Robert Bartlett Collection, and ANS.



Just in case, here's a truly Marsy-Mars (consigned it in 2013 to RCA-Smits/Hochrein but unsold):


NEXT: STRADDLING TWO CULTURES (any two, in any way, artistic, linguistic, religious, economic...)

 

Hi All,

A mix of the Greek and Arab culture in Egypt. This coin uses the Greek AΛ for the Alexandria mint mark as well as spelling it out in Arabic.



Next: A coin showing a building.

- Broucheion

 

That's a fascinating one, @Broucheion , I love any kind of bilingual coins. (Also from a very interesting collection; "JSW," as he was known in the early volumes of RPC, had a fantastic Provincial collection, among others.)

Here is the hexastyle Temple of Roma, presumably the one built in Hadrian's reign (also shown on his own Sestertii with the same decorations, but usually with more columns on coins of both Philip and Hadrian). (AKA "Temple of Venus and Roma," or Templum Veneris et Romae, per Wikipedia; see also a relevant excerpt of Mary Boatwright's Hadrian and the City of Rome from Open University, illustrated by a Hadrian Sestertius. She begins with the anecdote ("a strange and improbable story") from Cassius Dio (69.4.4) about the famous architect/engineer Apollodorus of Damascus being executed for scorning Hadrian's plans for the edifice.)

This one is on a Philip I Ludi Saeculares coin -- i.e., celebrating the millennial games at the 1,000th anniversary of Rome's founding.

Ex Agora 26 (2015), 168; previously ex Nick Economopolous and NFA MBS Fall 1990, #2198.



NEXT: Another coin issued for "the games" (whether these same millennial games or a different century/decade's ludi saeculares, or even a completely different "games," many of which are also celebrated on Greek and RPC coinage)

 

Domitian, as.
The emperor sacrificing in front of a temple for the Ludi Saeculares in 88 AD

Next up : an agonistic table