Featured Here Comes the Moon

I love this romantic Sogdian coin from the Chach town of Kabarna (just east of Tashkent), with its tired old horse trudging under the moon.



AE Chach, Kabarna, 7th-8th century AD. Obv. Horse trudges to the right under crescent moon with dot. Kz. Tamgha nr. 2 (hook flower). 18 mm, 1.86 gr. Shagalov & Kuznetsov 74-76, group 2 nr. 8 (version 1, the heavier variant).

 

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I love that you shot Luna by the light of a lunar eclipse! That info needs to stay with the digital image and become part of the pedigree .

Superduper coin too. Wish it was mine.

 

Solar! Lunar eclipses are really nothing to write home about. Twice in my life I was within an hour's drive of a total solar eclipse but passed up the opportunity at least partly because of the traffic and crowd. Texas is the place to be in 2023 and 2024.
https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/list.html

 

Oh, yeah. Oops

 

No one knows why Kamarina used the gorgoneion on their coins. “Kamar” means “moon” in Arabic and Maltese. It is possible the gorgoneion is a moon face and this is a punning type.


Sicily, Kamarina, 415?-405 BC, onkia 11.5mm, 1.22 g, 8h
Obverse: Gorgoneion, upper teeth visible
Reverse: KAMA; Owl facing left right, holding lizard, standing on line, denomination dot below.
ex CNG, e-auction 389, January 2017, lot 32 (Lynn Shea Collection)

Kamarina was destroyed by the Carthaginians in 405 BC but it was refounded later. Its complete destruction dates from 853 AD.

 

And Ex Carthago. I sold it in the 2013 e-Sale. I always really liked this coin but only collection Roman Republican anymore.

 

Thanks! I had the vague recollection that it had another CT pedigree, but could never find the thread. Glad to be able to restore it to the coin, now.

 

This one was struck in Carrhae-Mesopotamian under Gordian III. BMC 61.

 

Amazing photo's @zumbly. That is a spectecular eclipse. The coins shown are beautiful too, especially the Caracalla ant!

Here's my only lunar-related coin, of, ofcourse, Julia Domna. Diana Lucifera/Luna Lucifera sure was a favorite godess of the Severans.



I have an antoninianus of Caracalla, but with jupiter on the reverse. It's definately not as pretty as your antoninianus, but i like the dark toning, and the fact that its dated 215 AD, which would mean it is one of the first ant's circulated.

 

A bit late to the party, but I've got some moons as well!
ELYMAIAN KINGDOM, Phraates
Denomination: ae drachm, minted: uncertain mint; c 100 AD
Obv: Bust facing left, wearing tiara; pellet in crescent above anchor with one cross bar
Rev: Artemis standing right, holding bow and plucking arrow from quiver
Weight: 3.51g; Ø:14mm
Catalogue: Van't Haaff 14.6; Alram 473
Ex @AnYangMan


CELTS, Annonymous
Denomination: ae semis, minted: Obulco (current Porcuna, Spain); c 100 - 0 BC
Obv: Laureate head of Apollo right. NIG on the left, OBVULC on the right (off center)
Rev: Bull, crescent above
Weight: 3.63g; Ø:17mm
Catalogue: CNH 81; SNG BM Spain 1473-5.

Strabo writes in his Geographies "Formerly the road passed on through the midst of the plain, and [the city of] Egelastae, which was both difficult and long, but they have now constructed a new road close to the sea, which merely touches upon the Plain of Rushes, and leads to the same places as the former, [viz.] Castlon, and Obulco, through which runs the road to Corduba and Gades, the two greatest emporia [of Iberia]. Obulco is distant about 300 stadia from Corduba. Historians report that Caesar came from Rome to Obulco, and to his army there, within the space of twenty-seven days, when about to fight the battle of Munda."

And another one, showing a male head with a bad hair day: