New: Philip I Tetradrachm, Bust seen from front, cuirassed....

I just bought this new Philip I tetradrachm of Antioch, Syria. Now, I have seen and have several of the type with the bust, seen from the front, cuirassed and with a head of medusa on the breastplate, however, I have never seen one with the strap across the breastplate as this one has... I remember seeing coins of Hadrian that had such a thing, and they had a name for it too.... I was just wondering what exactly this bust type is, and if anyone has any references or similar coins. Thanks.

 

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Beautiful coin & great details

 

Thanks, I like it alot. I'm a big fan of the 'bust left, seen from the front' style tetradrachmai of Philip I and II. I have two tets of Philip I with the bust left, cuirassed, seen from the front with the medusa head on the breastplate, and one frontal bust left, draped and cuirassed of Philip II.
I have seen alot of frontal bust left, cuirassed with no medusa head and no strap going across the chest.... but I haven't seen any like this one, with the strap going across his chest from left to right.... at least not on tetradrachmai of this Emperor.
Hopefully someone can help me out on that...

 

Apparently from what I am finding, the strap across the chest is called a 'balteus'.

According to wikipedia:
Balteus is a Latin word, possibly itself from Etruscan, which means "belt", a word derived from it.

A sword belt worn by the Roman legionary.

 

Duplicate post

 

Coin similar to yours from acsearch.info:

http://www.acsearch.info/record.html?id=275243

This should help with the inscription:

http://www.acsearch.info/record.html?id=245004


guy

 

Yep, Thank you. That one in the first link looks about the same, same regnal year as well..... I just wish mine looked that nice heh. But I did pay much less for mine than the one in the link went for.
I very much like the different varieties of frontal busts of these Emperors, and now I have a few, and I plan on continuing my collection of these bust types. I hope to get one of Otacilia Severa eventually as well... then I shall have the whole family in Tetradrachmai
Here are some of my other frontal bust left Tets....

Philip I - Radiate bust left, cuirassed, seen from front. Medusa Head on breastplate. (it's really hard to see the Medusa Head on this first one, just the bottom of the face pokes out beneath the rust) 13.9 Grams

Philip I - Laureate bust left, cuirassed, seen from front. Medusa Head on breastplate. (this one has a much muc more noticeable Medusa head.) 11.4 Grams.

Philip II - Laureate bust left, draped and cuirassed, seen from front. 10.59 Grams.



http://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=3165
if you scroll down in this album past these coins in the link there are alot more of my Roman Tetradrachmai from Antioch and Alexandria.

 

sweet addition! Thats a great obv.

 

Woow! That really is a beautiful collection of coins. Thank you for sharing. I truly am amazed at the powerful images on these coins.

guy

 

Thank you very much. These are some of my favorite coins of my collection and I really appreciate the comments.

 

Newest Addition to my Ancients....

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I didn't want to have to start a new thread, even though this Ancient Silver coin I recently added to my collection has little to do with this thread.

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I always liked the few denarii struck by Gordian III, and I especially like the reverse on this one. The details looks pretty good too, not mint state, or even Extra Fine, but still alot of detail remaining... I hate trying to assign a grade to ancients, but I'd go out on a limb and call this one VF or aVF.

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One of the denarii of Gordian III that I definitely plan on adding to my collection in the future is the one with the Emperor on horseback on the reverse.

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Gordian III AR Denarius. 240 AD.
obv: IMP GORDIANVS PIVS FEL AVG - laureate, draped & cuirassed bust right.
rev: SALVS AVGVSTI - Salus standing right, holding and feeding snake.

RIC 129a, RSC 325.

Comment: Last issue of the AR Denarius produced for mass circulation in the Roman Empire. This was a special issue of six (RIC 115, 127, 129-131) struck marking the marriage of Gordian III to Sabinia Tranquillina in the summer of 240.
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I will put up new photos of this coin as well as the Philip I Tetradrachm when I get a chance to take some good ones.

 

Very nice. yeah I like the horseback ones as well.

 

Your tetradrachm is McAlee 942b, struck AD 248-249. He describes the bust type as laureate and cuirassed bust right, seen from front, wearing balteus. A balteus is a sword belt that is suspended diagonally over the shoulder.

 

Really like the Salus reverse, been wanting one myself.

 

Gracias.... I like the Salus reverse alot myself... I'll surely take some new photos in a few days. thanks for the comments.

 

These are all great looking coins!

 

Thank you.
A bit off topic for this thread, but hey... it is my thread... so...

I found out today that the bank teller I have known and seen on a nearly weekly basis for years is retiring on December 31. She has been very nice, and even gave me a couple handfulls of 40% silver kennedy halves that the bank was going to sell or melt, since she knew I collected coins, and she would always keep older pennies and stuff for me.... and I never asked her to , she just did, she was just a nice lady, who knew I had a passion for coins. I gave her a couple of indian head pennies and a liberty nickel for her 12 year old grandson last year, and apparently he quite liked them. So I was thinking, as a gift to her for all her kindness throughout the years, I was going to try to find an inexpensive, but nice enough detailed Roman 4th century bronze coin to give to her for her grandson.... I thought that would have to be a super cool Christmas present, a coin that is 1600+ years old, especially since he was so fascinated by the stuff from the late 1800's. So I'm watching some coins on ebay now, hoping to find something that is readable with a good portrait. Something nice enough he can treasure for the rest of his life. We'll see how things go....

 

That was be very nice thing to do. Heck someone that age would probably love the fallen horseman reverse.

 

Yeah thats a pretty cool thing to do.

 

Yeah, I was thinking of trying to find one with a battle type of scene on the reverse, a fallen horseman would surely be quite interesting to her grandson. I mainly want a good portrait though, but we shall see.