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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;DonnaML, post: 4554255, member: 110350&quot;]I think the Jim Phelps article on Forum (see <a href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Liber%20Pater" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Liber%20Pater" rel="nofollow">http://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Liber Pater</a>), as well as several of the examples posted in this thread, are extremely persuasive in demonstrating that the &quot;tigress&quot; is, in fact, a tigress, and not simply a skinny panther with ribs showing.&nbsp; In fact, the animals with stripes tend to be considerably <u>more</u> robust, not less, than the ones without stripes, which would make no sense if the intent had been to portray ribs showing.</p><p><br /></p><p>There&#039;s an entirely separate question regarding the panther coins that are, in fact, panthers:&nbsp; what animal, exactly, did those coins intend to show?&nbsp; In the New World, in North America, &quot;panther&quot; is simply another synonym for a mountain lion / cougar / puma.&nbsp; Obviously not an animal the Romans knew!&nbsp; In South America, a &quot;black panther&quot; is simply a melanistic jaguar.&nbsp; Also an animal unknown to the Romans.</p><p><br /></p><p>In the Old World in ancient times, as I understand it, a &quot;panther&quot; was another word for a leopard, especially a melanistic leopard, i.e., a black panther.&nbsp; Perhaps that&#039;s what the &quot;panther&quot; coins intended to show?&nbsp; If they intended to show an ordinary leopard, why no spots?&nbsp; Ancient artists were clearly capable of portraying a leopard with spots reasonably accurately. See this portrayal from an ancient Greek red-figure bell krater showing Dionysus on the back of a &quot;panther&quot; with spots that&#039;s obviously a leopard: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dionysus#/media/File:Dionysos_panther_Louvre_K240.jpg" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dionysus#/media/File:Dionysos_panther_Louvre_K240.jpg" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dionysus#/media/File:Dionysos_panther_Louvre_K240.jpg</a>.</p><p><br /></p><p>So perhaps the &quot;panther&quot; on Gallienus&#039;s zoo coins was a black panther, i.e., a melanistic leopard.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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