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From Roman Alexandria: Trajan Drachm with Elephant Quadriga
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<p>[QUOTE="DonnaML, post: 7750037, member: 110350"]Thanks to all of you for your good wishes. I've been feeling better the last couple of days.</p><p><br /></p><p>I still have to write up the three new Roman Republican denarii I've bought in the last two months, but this new coin arrived in the mail yesterday, so I'll post it first. It's quite worn, but the design is still clear, and I couldn't resist buying it! It's my first elephant quadriga (or biga) from any issuer -- and anyone who knows me at all knows how much I like coins with animal reverses, with a special fondness for elephants! -- as well as my first Roman Alexandrian coin of Trajan, and my first Roman Alexandrian bronze drachm. Most of the Roman Alexandrian coins I already had were from Hadrian (7) and Antoninus Pius (3) (along with a scattering of individual coins from Claudius, Nero, and later emperors like Elagabalus, Claudius II, and Probus), and all were tetradrachms, diobols, or obols. I've wanted to buy at least one drachm for some time -- I've always found it a bit odd that the drachms were larger than the tetradrachms despite the latter being worth 4 times as much, and having so little silver content -- but drachms really aren't all that easy to find in nice condition. This one was good enough for me!</p><p><br /></p><p>Trajan, AE Drachm, Year 15 (111/112 AD), Alexandria, Egypt Mint. Obv. Laureate bust right, nude and with aegis on left shoulder, ΑΥΤ ΤΡΑΙΑΝ ϹЄΒ ΓЄΡΜ ΔΑΚΙΚ / Rev. Emperor (Trajan), laureate and togate, standing in elephant quadriga, right. holding eagle-tipped sceptre and branch; first three elephants with trunks turned down at end and fourth elephant with trunk turned up; in exergue, L IE (Year 15). RPC [<i>Roman Provincial Coinage</i>] Vol. III 4605.4 (2015); RPC Online at <a href="https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/3/4605.4" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/3/4605.4" rel="nofollow">https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/3/4605.4</a> ; Emmett 462.15 [Emmett, Keith, <i>Alexandrian Coins</i> (Lodi, WI, 2001)]; Dattari (Savio) 769 [Savio, A. ed., <i>Catalogo completo della collezione Dattari Numi Augg. Alexandrini</i> (Trieste, 2007)]; BMC 16 Alexandria 512 at p. 61 [Pool, Reginald Stuart, <i>A Catalog of the Greek Coins in the British Museum, Vol. 16, Alexandria</i> (London, 1892)]; Milne 669 [Milne, J., <i>A Catalogue of the Alexandrian Coins in the Ashmolean Museum</i> (Oxford, 1933, reprint with supplement by Colin M. Kraay)]; K&G 27.389 [Kampmann, Ursula & Granschow, Thomas, <i>Die Münzen der römischen Münzstätte Alexandria</i> (2008)]. 33.5 mm., 21.26 g. <i>Purchased from Odysseus-Numismatique, Montpellier, France, June 2021.</i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i>[ATTACH=full]1326891[/ATTACH] </i></p><p><br /></p><p>The year in the reverse exergue is almost completely worn off, so it was a bit difficult to identify, given that the elephant quadriga design was issued for Trajan in ten different years -- with several different varieties for some of those years, including whether the year appears in the reverse exergue or in the reverse right field, how many of the elephants' trunks are pointed down or up, whether Trajan appears draped or nude and whether or not he has an aegis, and so on. Not even to mention the varieties that have a flying Nike on the reverse above the elephants!</p><p><br /></p><p>But, after looking at all the possibilities as carefully as I could, and examining many examples on acsearch and elsewhere, i believe that L IE -- Year 15 -- is the only reasonable possibility. If anyone disagrees, please let me know.</p><p><br /></p><p>I'm mildly concerned that there seem to be a few green spots in the small scraped or chipped area at 6 o'clock on the obverse. (There's nothing like that in the parallel area on the reverse.) The spots don't seem to be flaky when I poke at them with a toothpick, but do I assume correctly that it couldn't do any harm to put the coin in distilled water for 24 hours or so?</p><p><br /></p><p>Given that we've had several excellent threads in the fairly recent past about elephant and other non-equine bigas and quadrigas among Republican and Imperial coins, please post (1) your Roman Provincial coins with non-equine bigas or quadrigas, and/or (2) your Roman Alexandrian drachms of any type.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="DonnaML, post: 7750037, member: 110350"]Thanks to all of you for your good wishes. I've been feeling better the last couple of days. I still have to write up the three new Roman Republican denarii I've bought in the last two months, but this new coin arrived in the mail yesterday, so I'll post it first. It's quite worn, but the design is still clear, and I couldn't resist buying it! It's my first elephant quadriga (or biga) from any issuer -- and anyone who knows me at all knows how much I like coins with animal reverses, with a special fondness for elephants! -- as well as my first Roman Alexandrian coin of Trajan, and my first Roman Alexandrian bronze drachm. Most of the Roman Alexandrian coins I already had were from Hadrian (7) and Antoninus Pius (3) (along with a scattering of individual coins from Claudius, Nero, and later emperors like Elagabalus, Claudius II, and Probus), and all were tetradrachms, diobols, or obols. I've wanted to buy at least one drachm for some time -- I've always found it a bit odd that the drachms were larger than the tetradrachms despite the latter being worth 4 times as much, and having so little silver content -- but drachms really aren't all that easy to find in nice condition. This one was good enough for me! Trajan, AE Drachm, Year 15 (111/112 AD), Alexandria, Egypt Mint. Obv. Laureate bust right, nude and with aegis on left shoulder, ΑΥΤ ΤΡΑΙΑΝ ϹЄΒ ΓЄΡΜ ΔΑΚΙΚ / Rev. Emperor (Trajan), laureate and togate, standing in elephant quadriga, right. holding eagle-tipped sceptre and branch; first three elephants with trunks turned down at end and fourth elephant with trunk turned up; in exergue, L IE (Year 15). RPC [[I]Roman Provincial Coinage[/I]] Vol. III 4605.4 (2015); RPC Online at [URL]https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/3/4605.4[/URL] ; Emmett 462.15 [Emmett, Keith, [I]Alexandrian Coins[/I] (Lodi, WI, 2001)]; Dattari (Savio) 769 [Savio, A. ed., [I]Catalogo completo della collezione Dattari Numi Augg. Alexandrini[/I] (Trieste, 2007)]; BMC 16 Alexandria 512 at p. 61 [Pool, Reginald Stuart, [I]A Catalog of the Greek Coins in the British Museum, Vol. 16, Alexandria[/I] (London, 1892)]; Milne 669 [Milne, J., [I]A Catalogue of the Alexandrian Coins in the Ashmolean Museum[/I] (Oxford, 1933, reprint with supplement by Colin M. Kraay)]; K&G 27.389 [Kampmann, Ursula & Granschow, Thomas, [I]Die Münzen der römischen Münzstätte Alexandria[/I] (2008)]. 33.5 mm., 21.26 g. [I]Purchased from Odysseus-Numismatique, Montpellier, France, June 2021. [ATTACH=full]1326891[/ATTACH] [/I] The year in the reverse exergue is almost completely worn off, so it was a bit difficult to identify, given that the elephant quadriga design was issued for Trajan in ten different years -- with several different varieties for some of those years, including whether the year appears in the reverse exergue or in the reverse right field, how many of the elephants' trunks are pointed down or up, whether Trajan appears draped or nude and whether or not he has an aegis, and so on. Not even to mention the varieties that have a flying Nike on the reverse above the elephants! But, after looking at all the possibilities as carefully as I could, and examining many examples on acsearch and elsewhere, i believe that L IE -- Year 15 -- is the only reasonable possibility. If anyone disagrees, please let me know. I'm mildly concerned that there seem to be a few green spots in the small scraped or chipped area at 6 o'clock on the obverse. (There's nothing like that in the parallel area on the reverse.) The spots don't seem to be flaky when I poke at them with a toothpick, but do I assume correctly that it couldn't do any harm to put the coin in distilled water for 24 hours or so? Given that we've had several excellent threads in the fairly recent past about elephant and other non-equine bigas and quadrigas among Republican and Imperial coins, please post (1) your Roman Provincial coins with non-equine bigas or quadrigas, and/or (2) your Roman Alexandrian drachms of any type.[/QUOTE]
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From Roman Alexandria: Trajan Drachm with Elephant Quadriga
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