Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Marsyas Mike, post: 2677231, member: 85693&quot;]I recently obtained a cruddy denarius of Julia Mamaea with some damage that I thought might be interesting.&nbsp; It is has a lot of (very uninteresting) black crud on the reverse, but the obverse has a large chisel cut across Mamaea&#039;s face.&nbsp; It looks like she was given one of The Joker&#039;s &quot;smiles&quot; from Batman (R.I.P. Heath Ledger).&nbsp; Not a banker&#039;s mark, this looks more like one of those test cuts applied to Athenian tetradrachms.&nbsp; And it looks kind of deliberate to me.&nbsp; There is also a pretty deep punchmark in front of her face taking off the tip of her nose. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]597487[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]597489[/ATTACH]</p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>[ATTACH=full]597490[/ATTACH] </b></p><p><b>Denarius Julia Mamaea (Mother of Severus Alex.)222-235 A.D. </b>IVLIA MAMAEA AVG, diademed &amp; draped bust right / FELICITAS PVBLICA, Felicitas standing, head left, holding caduceus &amp; resting arm on column. RIC 335; RSC 17; BMC 483</p><p><br /></p><p>I realize it looks like a fourrée, but I am pretty sure the black stuff is on the surface of the coin, not base metal breaking through the silver (any tips for cleaning this off would be appreciated - it is really hard stuff).</p><p><br /></p><p>Anyway, what got me to thinking was the fact that Julia Mamaea, after she was murdered with her son Severus Alexander, was blamed for bad management, greed, meddling, etc.&nbsp; Therefore, according to Livius.org &quot;The Senate pronounced a damnatio memoriae over Mamaea.&quot;&nbsp; Usually this manifested itself in statues and inscriptions, but I know coins were included as well (poor Geta).&nbsp; Ancient Imports.com has a wonderful example for sale, a bronze as (I think) of Mamaea, which they list as a damnatio memoriae.</p><p><br /></p><p>I realize assigning damage to an ancient coin to a specific event is impossible, but I thought the nature of the damage here was compelling.&nbsp; Any thoughts?&nbsp; Any others out there?[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in