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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;DonnaML, post: 6588311, member: 110350&quot;]<font size="5">I said earlier in this thread that I&#039;ve been looking for some time for an example of Crawford 263/1 (the Caecilius Metellus coin with Roma on the obverse and a Macedonian shield on the reverse with an elephant head in the center), but that it&#039;s very difficult to find one with both a clear reverse legend around the shield, and a recognizable elephant head in the middle. </font></p><p><br /></p><p><font size="5">By pure coincidence, Forvm Ancient Coins put one up, apparently sometime in the last 24 hours, that&#039;s hardly perfect (poor Roma has a terrible skin condition on her chin and jaw), but easily meets both those requirements. In fact, I really like the reverse. Plus, the price was affordable for me. As soon as I saw it, I realized that I&#039;m very unlikely to see another one as nice at a better price for a long time, if ever. So I went ahead and bought it. When it arrives, it will be my Roman Republican denarius # 48, and my seventh elephant coin -- the third from a member of the Caecilii Metelli family.</font></p><p><font size="5"><br /></font></p><p><font size="5">Rather than waiting to post a photo until it arrives, I&#039;ll do so now, while this thread is still fairly recent. I&#039;ll wait until the coin arrives to give it my own description; here is the seller&#039;s, with my additions in brackets:</font></p><p><br /></p><p><b>Ch VF Roman Republic Denarius 127 BC Shield Decorated With Elephant Head</b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>Roman Republic, M. Caecilius Q.f. Metellus, 127 B.C.</b></p><p><br /></p><p>RR93647. Silver denarius, Crawford 263/1[a], Sydenham 480, RSC I Caecilia 29, Russo RBW 1064, SRCV I 139, <b>Choice VF, toned</b>, marks, scattered porosity, 3.801 g, 19.5 mm, 270 [degrees], Rome mint, head of Roma right in a winged helmet, [star on helment flap]. ROMA [upwards] behind, X (XVI ligature, mark of value=16 asses) below chin; reverse Macedonian shield, decorated with elephant head in center, M METELLVS Q F around, all within laurel wreath; from the Errett Bishop Collection.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1264946[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Rather than my usual footnote, just a few quick comments:</p><p><br /></p><p>The reason the coin is classified as Crawford 263/1a is that the obverse &quot;ROMA&quot; legend goes upwards; the ROMA on 263/1b goes downwards.</p><p><br /></p><p>The supposed &quot;star&quot; on the helmet flap is very difficult to discern, but from looking at other examples on acsearch, I believe it&#039;s supposed to be what look like chicken-scratches below and slightly to the right of the bottom of the wing on Roma&#039;s helmet.</p><p><br /></p><p>The reverse design apparently honors the moneyer&#039;s father, Q. Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus, who defeated the Macedonian pretender Andriscus in 148 BCE.</p><p><br /></p><p>As with the other examples of this type shown earlier in this thread, the elephant head in the center of the shield clearly does have a bell. The way it&#039;s placed, however, it looks far more like a bottle in the elephant&#039;s mouth, from which it&#039;s drinking whatever elephants drink when they&#039;re in Rome, than a bell around its neck. I think it adds a certain charm to the scene! Even if the elephant does look a bit surly.</p><p><br /></p><p>Finally, I Googled Errett Bishop -- not a common name, one would think -- and the only one I found was a U.S. mathematician who died in 1983. I suppose he could have been a coin collector, but who knows?</p><p><br /></p><p>Anyway, I do hope that I can repeat this magic trick regularly in the future -- mentioning a specific coin-type I want and then seeing it show up for sale within the next two days![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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