Geographic Personifications

I'm pretty sure you're right about the die match. That's your coin? Very nice condition!

 

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I forgot to post this:


BRITISH TWO PENCE (Circulated)
Obverse: George III, laureate and draped bust, facing right
Inscription: GEORGIUS III D G REX
Reverse: Britannia, seated left, on rock over ocean waves, cradling trident in left arm and holding olive branch in right hand
Inscription: BRITANNIA - 1797

 

The obverse of these staters of Gortyna are almost always described as showing Europa seated in the branches of a plane tree, but M. Svoronos in his 1894 monograph argues that the figure depicted is more likely to be Britomartis, a mountain goddess worshipped predominantly in Crete.

CRETE, Gortyna
AR Stater. 11.68g, 27mm x 24.5mm. CRETE, Gortyna, circa 330-270 BC. BMC Crete pg. 38, 9, pl. IX. 8 (same rev die); SNG Cop 442; Svoronos 59. O: Europa, wearing chiton with short sleeves and peplos over lower limbs, seated right in platanus tree; right hand on tree, heading resting pensively on left arm which is bent and supported by her knee. R: Bull standing right, head reverted, right hind leg lifted.
Ex Matthew Curtis Collection; ex Classical Numismatic Group 100 (7 October 2015), lot 1398

Here's one of Europa on a bull that I do have...

IBERIA, Castulo (Kastilo)
AE28. 11.75g, 28.2mm. IBERIA, Castulo, early 1st century BC. SNG Cop. 223; SNG BM Spain 1394; Villaronga CNH 339; Burgos 120/906. O: L Q V F Q ISC F, male head left. R: MCF, Europa, cloak billowing over her head, riding bull right.

 

This a ruddy one, but here is Europa riding a bull...


RR Valerius Acisculus 45 BCE Apollo star Europa bull Sear 469 Craw 474-1

 

Yes, thank you, that is my coin. Here's another, one we've already seen with lion, elephant headdress and drapery holding ears of grain...
Septimius Severus, AD 193-211, AR denarius, Rome mint struck AD 207 Obv: SEVERVS PIVS AVG, Laureate head right
Rev: P M TR P XV COS III P P, Africa, wearing elephant-skin head-dress, draped, standing right, holding out drapery with ears of grain (or fruits?) in its fold; at feet, right, lion
Ref: RIC IV 207A

 

Are you sure someone posted this variety? The one I posted (RIC 207) has Africa holding what's probably fruit in her drapery rather than grain, and the depiction of the lion at her feet shows only the lion's head, looking left, rather than what seems to be the entire lion, looking right.

 

@jamesicus, here's my example of the 1797 Cartwheel twopence with Britannia on the reverse. 41 mm., 56.1 grams. I purchased it from Karl Stephens Inc. in March 1986; it was sold to me as being in EF condition. I almost sold it to Stack's Bowers along with most of the rest of my higher-grade British coins and medals some years ago, but pulled it back from the sale at the last minute, together with a few others, because I decided that I simply couldn't bear to part with them!

 

Very nice one.

ATB,
Aidan.

 

Wonderful example Donna - best I have ever seen - thank you for posting it.

James

 

We'd seen a similar Septimius/Africa before, and you're right, not exactly this coin. The fruits, grain, and sometimes snake described on this coin are all a bit questionable - it's clear to me that there is a lobster in the drapery. And the lion looks a lot like a toddler.

 

To try to answer a question I asked earlier in this thread -- namely, when did Britannia first appear on English/British coinage after the Roman era came to an end -- it seems that she first appeared on the British copper farthings and halfpennies of Charles II, beginning in 1672. This was the first official base metal coinage in England. So unless she ever appeared on silver or gold coinage before then (which I doubt), the answer is 1672. Here is what Peter Seaby had to say on the subject in his book The Story of British Coinage (Seaby, London, 1985) at p. 125. (I may have sold most of my British coins and medals, but I kept all my books!)


Note the suggestion that this initial design of Britannia was based on her depiction on a sestertius of Antoninus Pius.

Here is my own oldest coin depicting Britannia: a copper farthing of Charles II from 1675, purchased from CNG about 15-20 years ago as "near VF." (I sold very few of my copper coins, many of which I collected in childhood -- most aren't worth enough for there to have been much point in selling them.) I should note that although it was sold to me as a 1675 farthing, the last digit looks more like a "3" to me. But I couldn't find enough detailed photos of 1673 and 1675 farthings online to compare mine with, to be sure. Unfortunately, my reverse is considerably more worn than the obverse in general. I don't think it really merited a "near VF"!

 

I have some other different representations of Pannonia and Dacia

Aelius AE As. RIC 1071
L AELIVS CAESAR, bare head right /
TR POT COS II, S-C and PANNO-NIA across, Pannonia standing facing, head left, holding standard.


Hadrian AE Sestertius. Struck 136 AD. RIC 849f
HADRIANVS AVG COS III P P, laureate and draped bust right /
S-C DACIA, Dacia seated left on rock, holding vexillum in right hand, curved sword in left


Philip I AE30(Sestertius). 246/247 AD.
IMP M IVL PHILIPPVS AVG, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right /
PROVINCIA DACIA, AN I in ex, Dacia standing left, in long chiton and Phrygian cap, holding curved sword in right hand and standard inscribed XIII in left hand, to left standard inscribed V, to right of Dacia lion walking left, to left of Dacia eagle with head turned right, wreath in beak.


Trajan AE Dupondius. RIC 623a
IMP CAES NERVAE TRAIANO AVG GER DAC PM TRP COS VI P P, radiate bust right, slight drapery on left shoulder /
DACIA AVGVST, PROVINCIA/S C in exergue, Dacia seated left on rock, holding aquila; small children around holding grain and grapes respectively.