I landed this decent set of coins in two separate auctions, lately. My goal was to collect different Men types. Didn't realize it at first but I ended with a husband and wife combination! Has to be the same engraver too! And the cherry on top, it's a hard-to-find city! Parlais. City is located in south-central Turkey on a mountain slope overlooking one of the large lakes in Turkey, Lake Egirdir! Both coins have a green patina. Although the coloring on the Julia coin I couldn't get corrected. One day, I'll replace the image with my own.
Very fun! I have an example of the Julia Domna coin, too, struck with the same obverse die as yours but with a different reverse die. Julia Domna, AD 193-217. Roman provincial Æ 21.3 mm, 5.15 g, 7 h. Pisidia, Parlais, AD 193-196? Obv: IVLIA-DOMNA, bare-headed and draped bust, right. Rev: IVL AVG C-OL PARLAIS, Mên standing r., wearing Phrygian cap, left foot on bucranium, holding spear and pinecone; behind his shoulders, crescent. Refs: BMC 21.11, 3; SNG von Aulock 5137 (same obv. die).
I'd call those a step above 'decent'. There is a lot of variation in the styles from the Pisidian coins of this period. I particularly like your Septimius. I have no Parlais but am fond of my Antioch with a different reverse. For my Men, the Antioch style seems quite different making me wonder if some cutters worked in more than one place or if one city made some coins on contract for another. I'm not at all sure how we are going to decide what was going on with these with any degree of certainty. I only have one Domna Men but am not sure that it adds anything to the discussion unless in is the inclusion of MENSIS in the right side legend. Note also the inverted D on the obverse suggesting the cutter was not comfortable in Latin.
Those are great examples, thanks for sharing. I have to agree with you. The more I look at the different Men coins in Pisidia you can see a lot of commonality in the artistic styles of the coins- and between cities too! I have noticed that we find two main standing types of Men images. 1) With pinecone and no rooster and 2) with Victory and rooster. So, this is leading me to believe that the rooster and pinecone are virility symbols. This is based on the even older symbols of pinecone as virility and then assigning that to the rooster.
