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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 4558104, member: 19463&quot;]There is one other thing that bothers me about reverse figures like the Virtus of Gallienus.&nbsp; How did some expert in the past determine that the intent of the die cutter was to show the emperor in all his pencil necked glory?&nbsp; We simply do not know.&nbsp; Was there a young boy hero of a battle that day who made the reverse of a coin but never was recorded in written history?&nbsp; For certain that one will never be proven and has a one in a million chance of being true but the fact remains that we, today, can not go too far saying who &#039;posed&#039; for that reverse type. ...or was this just the work of an apprentice die cutter who should have found employment elsewhere.&nbsp; People seem to insist on complete labels on coins so we get names on statues when all we have is a standing figure of an uncertain person or rendition of a deity.&nbsp; These are not unretouched photographs admissible in court.&nbsp; They are an artist&#039;s rendition of a concept using the available skills for that medium.&nbsp; Certainly we have reverses that show the emperor&#039;s face well enough that we have reasonable certainty of the intent.&nbsp; This was not one of them.</p><p><br /></p><p>Yes, Virtus was a feminine noun and we have trouble accepting the idea of &#039;manliness&#039; being a woman.&nbsp; Yes, some better examples of Virtus coins show a breast.&nbsp; Many show a figure that could be a soldier, Mars, Virtus (the woman) or the die cutter&#039;s pre-school age son dressed up for a party.&nbsp; We do what we can do with what we have but need to avoid getting too worked up over these assumed labels. </p><p><br /></p><p>I don&#039;t have great examples from Gallienus but this denarius of Septimius relatively certainly shows the face of Septimius.&nbsp; </p><p>[ATTACH=full]1128391[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1128393[/ATTACH] </p><p>Is this standing figure certainly Caracalla, Septimius, &#039;the emperor&#039;, a priest or just a standing figure?&nbsp; We can label it as we choose.&nbsp; Just don&#039;t take your labels so seriously that you insist on everyone else seeing the same thing. </p><p>[ATTACH=full]1128394[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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