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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Jochen1, post: 3298580, member: 103829&quot;]Dear Friends!</p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;m collecting mainly provincial coins. Here I want to share one of my favourites. This coin is remarkable not only because of its beauty but because of its interesting background too. And it demonstrates again what you can get if you pay attention to small details.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>The Coin:</b></p><p>Moesia inferior, Markianopolis, Macrinus &amp; Diadumenian, AD 217-218</p><p>AE 27, 13.58g, 26.91mm, 45°</p><p>struck under governor P. Furius Pontianus</p><p>obv. AV K OΠΠEΛ CEVH MAKPEINOC</p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; beneath in 3 lines</p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; K M OΠΠEΛ AN / TΩNINOC ΔI / AΔOVMH</p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Confronting heads of Diadumenian, bare-headed, r., and of Macrinus, laureate, l.</p><p>rev. VΠ ΠONTIAN - OV MAPKIAN / OΠOΛITΩN</p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Female figure, in long girded chiton, hairs bound in knot, std. on rock l., holding</p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; in extended r. hand branch with leaves (or flowers?), resting with l. arm on</p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; source, from which water flows; r. below a rabbit r.</p><p>ref. a) AMNG I/1, 755, pl. XVIII, 8 (1 ex., Bukarest, rabbit not mentioned!)</p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; b) Varbanov (engl.) 1265 (cites AMNG 755, rabbit not mentioned!)</p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; c) Hristova/Jekov (2013) No. 6.24.5.3 (this coin)</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]873374[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>The reverse has raised several questions. We see a female figure in long double chiton leaning l., resting with l. arm on vase from which water is flowing l. and holding in extended r. hand twigs with leaves (or flowers?). Who is the depicted female figure?</p><p><br /></p><p>Pick, a knowledgable and precise scientist, who has written the standard work about the coins of Northern Greek (AMNG), writes 1898: mountain goddess, city goddess, Gaia? The great Eckhel discusses Rhodope, a mythological princess after whose the mountain range of the Rhodopes on the Balkans are named. But that should be discarded because the obligate crown is missed. The coin attached below shows the pic. from Seguin, Sel. Numismata,1684, p.150. It is Antoninus Pius from Philippopolis, Varbanov (engl.) 706. The legend across the field is RODOPI.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]873375[/ATTACH]</p><p>After a longer debate in FAC with numismatists and art historians we have agreed that it is most probably a geographical personification, probably the personification of the province of Moesia, because the same depiction is found in Nikopolis too.</p><p><br /></p><p>Then I have discovered, that right below at the rock the long ears of a rabbit could be seen, a fact that no one has seen before. But what has a rabbit to do with Moesia? Nothing at all! But there was a Roman province which has had as symbol a rabbit. That was Spain! Rabbits were so numerous in ancient Spain, that according to Plinius they have even undermined Spanish cities (Stevenson).</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Coin:</b></p><p>Hadrian, AD 117-138</p><p>AR – Denarius, 3.48g, 225°</p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Rome, ca. AD 132</p><p>obv. HADRIANVS – AVG COS III PP</p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Bare head r.</p><p>rev. HISPANIA</p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Hispania, draped, leaning l., holding in raised r. hand olive branch and resting</p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; with l. arm on rock; behind her a rabbit r.</p><p>ref. RIC II, 306; C. 834; BMCR 849 var. (laureate bust)</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]873377[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>This denarius of Hadrian depicts on the rev. HISPANIA, the personification of the province of Spain. And right below we see the long ears of the rabbit! This rev. could well have been the model of the coin of Markianopolis. The personification std. l. is a standard depiction. We can suggest that the die cutter had a number of submittals which he used to cut his coins. When he needed the personification of a province he pulled out the depiction of HISPANIA without mentioning the rabbit which here was out of place (Curtis Clay).</p><p><br /></p><p>Because of fairness: Already Pick writes on p.194, note 4, that this type reminds on some depictions of provinces of Hadrian, e.g. of that of HISPANIA.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Now a historical excursion:</b></p><p>When the Phoenicians came to Spain about 1100 BC, they hold the rabbits - which they don&#039;t know - for dassies (<i>rock hyrax</i>) of their homeland. Their name was Phoenician &#039;<i>shaban</i>&#039; and therefore they called Spain after their dassies <i>&#039;i-shapan&#039;</i>, coast of the dassies. From this name the Romans made HISPANIA, from which came Espagna and Spain. So Spain is originally the &#039;country of the rabbits&quot;, actually the &#039;country of the dassies&#039;!</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]873378[/ATTACH]</p><p>I have attached a pic of a dassie (<i>Procavia caspensis</i>) from South Africa (from Wikipedia). He looks a bit like a rodent and the mistake by the Phoenicians is understandable, but actually it is a relative of - the elephant!</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Sources:</b></p><p>(1) Plinius, Naturalis historiae</p><p>(2) Pierre Seguin, Selecta Numismata Antiqua, Paris, 1665</p><p>(3) Joseph Hilarius Eckhel,&nbsp; Doctrina numorum veterum, Wien 1792-98</p><p>(4) Bernhard Pick, AMNG Bd.I</p><p>(5) Stevenson, Dictionary of Roman Coins</p><p>(6) Wikipedia</p><p><br /></p><p>Best regards[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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