Secret Saturnalia 2018

Well I'm a little late in posting my Secret Saturnalia gifts because I decided to open them up on Christmas and then wanted to take some decent photos before posting.

I am simply blown away by the amazing gifts. From the careful wrapping and presentation to the amazing amount of thought to the awesome coins I was blown away. Thank you Secret Saturn!

Okay here's a before photo.


First things first who could miss my fancy new badge!


...and to go along with it I received this epic Spartan coffee mug. My badge is the perfect size to ward off coffee thieves by reminding them this is property of the mighty Curtisimo.


Next we have the coins. Simply wow. It's like my Secret Saturn had a mirror into my mind that showed him/her exactly the kind of coins I would LOVE! Once I research a little more there will be follow up write ups.


Spain, Obulco
AE28, Obulco mint, struck mid II century BC
Dia.: 28 mm
Wt.: 16.83 g
Obv.: OBVLCO; female head right
Rev.: Celtic-Iberian legend: Magistrates names "Urkailtu" and "Neseltuko" between plow and grain ear.
Ref.: CNH 17, page 344


Indo-Greek Kingdoms
Apollodotus I
AE Hemiobol, mint in northwest India, struck ca. 175-164 BC
Dim.: 22x22 mm
Wt.: 9.27 g
Obv.: BAΣIΛEΩΣ AΠOΛΛOΔOTOY ΣΩTHPOΣ; Apollo standing facing holding arrow in right hand and bow in left.
Rev.: Karoshthi legend; tripod and monogram surrounded by square of dots.
Ref.: BMC 17, SG 7594


Indo-Greek Kingdoms
Menander I
AR Drachm, Sagala(?) mint, struck ca. 165-130 BC
Dia.: 20 mm
Wt.: 2.46 g
Obv.: BAΣIΛEΩΣ ΣΩTHPOΣ MENANΔPOY; helmeted head of king right.
Rev.: Karoshthi legend, "Maharajasa tratarasa Menamdrasa"; Athena Alkidemos standing left, holding aegis on outstretched left arm, hurling thunderbolt with right hand, monogram at right.
Ref.: Bop 16C

Last but certainly not least I was thrilled to receive this amazing piece of customized art.



That's right! Curtisimo the Great(ish) is getting his own movie and I expect to see you all at the premier in Chicago September 2nd!... What do you mean you can't make it?

Oh alright. Just for you guys I'll post the synopsis of the plot.

Once, long ago, there was a great and powerful prince of a prosperous city-state named Curtisimo. He was so awesome that Aphrodite fell in love with him and came to his city to abduct him because she was rather forward like that. Curtisimo tried to explain that she wasn't his type and that he liked a Germanic girl but when she wouldn't take no for an answer Curtisimo the Great was forced to leave his city disguised as a kitchen wench. Thus began his legendary journeys.

One day while walking along the sea shore he came upon the hero Perseus hiding behind a rock and crying. Perseus explained that he was going to fight the monster Cetus to save Andromeda but lost his nerve. When Curtisimo asked how he had managed to slay Medusa if he was afraid of a little old sea monster Perseus explained that it was easy because he had snuck up on Medusa while she was asleep. Exasperated, Curtisimo agreed to borrow Perseus's cloths and slay the monster if Perseus took the credit. After all, Curtisimo didn't need all the attention since Aphrodite was still searching for him with that wild look in her eye.



In his next adventure Curtisimo was getting rather hungry from all this heroism and decided he needed to recharge with some delicious food. He captured the Erymanthian Boar by trapping it in some snow in order to make bacon out of it. It was at this moment that Heracles swaggered by and started whining about how he needed the boar for his fourth labor. Curtisimo was annoyed at this and reminded Heracles that this was his movie and Heracles already had a bunch of movies and even an epic TV show in the 90s. Curtisimo agreed to give the boar to Heracles if he would go to one AA meeting a month and stop hogging all the screen time like a primadona.



Now both cranky and hungry Curtisimo the Great decided he would visit Troy to see what ladies they had stolen recently while grabbing a bite to eat. Much to the heroes surprise he found a group of dudes trying to knock the walls down like a bunch of amateurs. He decided to strike up a conversation with the one who looked the least dimwitted and learned that the dudes were actually Greeks and they were planning to build a giant bunny rabbit to use to sneak into the city. "A good idea" advised Curtisimo. "Only you shouldn't go with a bunny because king Priam is terrified of bunnies after watching that Monty Python sketch so he will probably just throw it into the sea." They seemed to be receptive to this advice but Curtisimo left soon after and never learned the outcome of all of that.

In his final adventure our hero was forced to come to grips with humiliating failure. Walking through a forest clearing he came upon one of the muses cooking some bacon. She confided that while all of her sisters had artistic talents she had yet to find her "thing." She was so desperate, she confided, that she would even share her bacon with anyone who could help. Thinking on his feet the hero took some wood from a nearby tree and crafted a wondrous instrument for the making of pleasant sounds. Thus he invented music on behalf of the muse. The hero took the promised bacon and went on his way. It wasn't long, however, until Curtisimo was surprised by an angry Athena who appeared out of nowhere to give him a glimpse of the future this "music". Curtisimo learned that one day an evil spirit named Miley Cyrus would twist his invention to evil purposes to the detriment of the eardrums of all man-kind. Horrified by what he had done the great hero was forced to accept Athena's judgement that from hence forth he would be demoted to Curtisimo the Great(ish) in penance for his bacon-impaired poor decision making abilities.

In this way our hero learned his limitations and decided to retire north of the Danube to live out his days happily with his German lady love well out of the reach of the ravenous Aphrodite... the end.​

Thanks again to my generous Secret Saturn and to the CT ancients family at large for another great year of coining.

 

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Congratulations!

 

Well done! Superb story telling, @Curtisimo ! Secret Saturn appears to have chosen coins from some of the more extreme regions of the empire and included a square one for good measure. If I were your Secret Saturn I would have done the same .

I can’t say enough about this wonderful Secret Saturn holiday tradition. Not only did I receive two beautiful coins from @Dafydd —I received several other anonymous gift coins from other kind and generous Forum members . I’m getting ready to post those soon.

 

Congratulations on the AWESOME SS gifts!!! And thanks for sharing the wonderful story of your epic adventures!!! I already bought tickets for the sequel...

(not on the same scale of coolness as the 1st movie poster. But hey, they had a much smaller budget for the sequel)

 

Well if you were my Secret Saturn I would tell you that your generous gifts were one of the highlights of my Christmas and that your thoughtful artwork will grace the wall of my office for many many years to come

Thanks Ray. The gifts were all perfect and will keep me fascinated and occupied with studying them for a long while

Agreed. This was a big surprise that made my day!

I have faith this will be a blockbuster and we will see a trilogy someday

 

Wow!! Congrats on the great package!

 

Great SS gifts everyone has given and received.

I opened my package from @zumbly on the 17th and was pleasantly surprised with a couple coins that were perfect for me:

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Roman Provincial Egypt. Severus Alexander, 222-235 AD. Potin Tetradrachm.
Mint of Alexandria, Egypt, struck AD 223/224 AD.
Obv: Α ΚΑΙ ΜΑΡ ΑΥΡ [СƐΥΗΡ ΑΛƐΞ]ΑΝΔΡΟС ƐΥСƐΒ - Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right.
Rev: Nike advancing left, holding wreath and palm frond; regnal year LΓ (year 3) in lower left field.
23mm, 12.55g, 11h; VF, dark gray-brown surfaces. Rare type for this regnal year.
Ref. Dattari (Savio) 4321, Milne 2910, Emmett 3118.3
cf. wildwinds.com/coins/greece/egypt/alexandria/t.html Milne 2910 (this coin)
Ex. CNG Auction 407, Lot 457 (OCT 2017; unsold) From the Hermanubis Collection
Ex. @zumbly

This Severus Alexander is now my fourth Alexandrian coin from Roman Egypt and certainly helps to cement my interest in this series.

The other great coin is more so something of a curiosity from the BCD Collection which according to the flip:

It is said that for decades, these mysterious coins had eluded all his attempts to attribute them definitively. Indeed, so fiendishly inscrutable were they that some were rumored to have had the power to drive an inexperienced collector or a careless scholar mad unless extreme caution was used when studying them.

​

On this unidentified specimen I do actually see some detail and I've already been trying my hand at discovering what this might be but found myself frothing at the mouth after only an hour so perhaps for now I'll file it away with the sole other BCD Collection coin I have and on occasion when I have a mad urge I'll pull this out to study.

@zumbly your gifts are tremendously awesome and I thank you, most sincerely, for the joy received now and in the future when I admire them in my collection. Hope you have a great New Year! -Doug

 

I'm glad you like them! I'm sorry about the mouth-frothing BCD mystery coin, but if it's of any comfort, I still more than my fair share of them... enough to keep me scratching my head and tearing my hair out well into 2019.

 

You’re most welcome, Sir! I'm delighted that you like the gifts—the coins especially. I knew that you are an accomplished collector—consequently I tended to look to the kingdoms on the far perimeters of the Hellen-o-Roman Empires as a source of ancient gifts. I couldn’t resist the Spanish lady and I don’t think I’ve ever seen you post a square coin (I could be wrong about that). Anyway, I've enjoyed your interesting and colorful essays and articles over the years and I hope you continue to post them. —DR

 

@Curtisimo - Your adventure movie is going to be GREAT!

I particularly love the parts where you advise against the Trojan Rabbit! Loollzz... and when you tell Hercules to stop belly-aching about having to be courageous, I actually guffawed!! Those laughs came in right handy, they did!! Of course, @Deacon Ray's gifts always have stupendous production values! His gifts and your story telling. . . Priceless!

 

Now that is impressive Ray! We often have Welsh Rarebit as a quick snack and improve it with a few drops of Worcestershire sauce on the bread but never chives.
That's something we'll try.
Happy New Year to all.

 

Great timing, Dafydd! And, Happy New Year to you and your dear ones!

I'm planning on making some Rarebit later on today and I'm trusting memory of my mom's recipe but that was a long time ago. Do you ever add Coleman's mustard powder and/or cayenne pepper to your cheese mixture?

Thanks for your advice!
—DR

 

I don't care for the mustard addition but add a little cayenne pepper and always use a very mature strong tasting Cheddar cheese. There are two trains of thought over here, melt the sauce in a pan or grate the cheese and mix and then melt it under a grill. Just before I read your thread I finished a Steven Saylor novel which had a great description of one of the delicacies enjoyed at a banquet attended by Crassus but I don't think I'll be experimenting with that recipe!

 

Thanks, @Dafydd! I'll let you know how it turns out (Lord-willing, if I survive ). I'm sure that you have access to authentic aged-Cheddar Cheese, as far as I know, cannot be imported into the USA. I'm not sure why Anyway, I'll use what's available to us here in the States. I'm a transplanted New Englander, so I'll use Vermont Cheddar and skip the powdered mustard. And, to keep this discussion in an ancient numismatic vein. Here are some bovines of ancient Rome.

 

Hi Folks !

Secret Saturnalia delivered just in time to be still in 2018 !

Big Up to @Smojo who, regardless of the challenges he faces, struggled with the USPS to have his gifts posted and brought to a far destination without too much trouble !

I've been humbled to find in the package two coins (well, actually it's 1 an 4/5 coins ) and an amusing and amazing Amazon gift card. I have already used the gift card to buy two books I needed (I didn't know I needed them until now, but now I'm impatient to have them) :





The two coins are the following, the first having obviously been purchased from Forvm (Wow !)

Elaiussa Sebaste, Islands of Cilicia, 1st century BC under roman rule
Bronze AE 20
Diademed head of Zeus right, ΘΕ monogram upward behind
Nike walking left, wreath in right hand, EΛAIOYΣΣIΩN downward on left, ΠΑ monogram over EP outer left
5,08 gr - 20 mm
Ref : SNG Levante # 830, SNG BnF # 1142, BMC Cilicia p.235,9

Elaiussa, meaning olive, was founded in the 2nd century B.C. on a tiny island attached to the southern coast of Turkey by a narrow isthmus in Mediterranean Sea. During the reign of Augustus, the Cappadocian king Archelaus founded a new city on the isthmus. Archelaus called it Sebaste, which is the Greek equivalent word of the Latin "Augusta." The city entered its golden age when Vespasian purged Cilicia of pirates in 74 A.D. Towards the end of the 3rd century A.D. its importance began to wane, due in large part to incursions by the Sassanian King Shapur I in 260 and later by the Isaurians. When its neighbor Corycus began to flourish in the 6th century A.D., Elaiussa Sebaste slowly disappeared from history. The theater, dating to the 2nd century A.D., is small with only 23 rows of seats, whose steps and decorations unfortunately succumbed to centuries of plunder.


Despite a little chip on the flan, the second one shows an incredibly brutal portrait of Caracalla


Caracalla, denarius, Rome mint AD 214
ANTONINVS PIVS AVG GERM, laureate head right
PM TR P XVII COS IV PP, Serapis standing left, raising right hand and holding sceptre
1,97 gr - 18 mm
Ref : RIC IV # 244, RSC # 241

Thanks again to my SS for a fabulous gesture
Happy new year all !!

Q

 

@Cucumbor I'm happy to see it finally made it and was to your liking.
I wasn't sure about the Elaiussa Sebaste and Joe was a big help getting it to me as quickly as possible. And I was hoping "books" but didn't know what kind and the card was much lighter .
I actually just might have to get me those same books, I was unaware of them and could use them myself.