Septimius Severus with uber-cool elephant reverse [Plaid Elephant]

Septimius Severus
AR Denarius A.D. 193-211

4.01 gms, 20.2 mm
Obv: Laurerate bust of Severus right.
SEPTSEVPERT AVGIMP VIIII.
Rev: Elephant facing right wearing
cuirass. MVNIFICENTIA.
Grade: gEF pretty much as struck.
Well centered with 90% of legends
clear.
Other: Nice reverse with very clear plaid pattern on elephant. Sear 1766.
Ex Heritage Jan 2013 auction 231304 Lot #61069 From Eye Appealing Coins 9/2013.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Very cool addition. Always liked these types.

 

I took photos of this coin with a few different liht sources and backgrounds. What good is a photo if you don't post it. Here you go-

 

i love that waffle elephant! the bust details are super also.

 

FWIW, the photo with the black background was taken with fluorescent lighting. The white/grey background was taken with Sun light. The pink (hand) background was taken using incandescent (Tungsten) illumination.

 

Thank you for the coin-complement. The term "waffle elephant" is a good one. In my mind's-eye I was calling it a "plaid elephant" until I got home & looked it up. The Sear book refers to the checkerboard pattern as "wearing cuirass". Here is the definition of cuirass:

cui·rass/kwiˈras/
Noun
1.
A piece of armor consisting of breastplate and backplate fastened together.
2.
A hard protective cover on an animal.

 

Superb coin! I like the first set of images the best.

 

Ele-phat!

 

Very nice. I love the elephant and it's Scottish plaid. I wonder which clan it belongs?

I think this was struck at Rome. Is that right? If so, I think the RIC attribution might be RIC 100. And if so, the obverse legend should start with "L" (which I think I see in your image), thus making it L SEPT SEV PERT AVG IMP VIIII, laureate head right / MVNIFICENTIA AVG, Elephant wearing cuirass walking right. I think I also see the "AVG" on the reverse legend.

 

This is a very nice example of what is usually struck on a small flan losing a lot of legend. They come in IMP VIII also. All considered, this may be the best of these I can remember seeing.

 

these coins look very cool and i love the name of the emperor

 

Oh my God!! ... I'm lovin' this coin!! (what a fantastic animal-coin!!)

=> I am definitely gonna keep my eyes peeled for one of those babies!!

Collect89 => thank you for posting your photos (I now have a new obsession)

 

The plaid pattern is a roman representation of elephant skin. I was involved in a discussion on the topic many years ago which seems to have disappeared from the board it was on. It was regarding the following coin, which I owned at the time.

Caracalla denarius
Obv:– ANTONINVS PIVS AVG BRIT, Laureate bust right
Rev:– P M TR P XV COS III P P (XV over XIIII), Elephant walking right
References:– VM 60/4, RIC 211a (Scarce), RSC 230



Martin

 

Really? Could you elaborate on that a bit? Why would the Romans see a plaid pattern in elephant skin?

 

There have been many discussions on this topic elsewhere. I will try and summarise what was concluded. It was all based around a discussion that these marks possibly represented armour or some other design elements. The pattern is not always diagonal as in the two exaples above and is sometimes made up of a vertical pattern

There are other representations of elephant skin in Roman art e.g. mosaics that we can use as reference points where elephant skin is being represented in a similar manner.





There was even some illustration of a close up image of elephant skin



What is the likelihood that the engravers would have seen an elephant up close or close enought to determine the detail of the skin.

The current belief is that the pattern is simply the "normal" Roman way to illustrate the skin of the elephant.

Regards,
Martin

 

A problem for some of us is that details like the elephant skin wear off when we collect less than mint state coins. My Philip I from Antioch mint shows a trace of the pattern on the hindquarters but that would be gone with very little more circulation.



Similarly my IMP VIII Septimius has some of the pattern but my IMP VIIII is worn away. The OP coin was exceedingly high grade making this sort of question possible.


Finally, I never considered this Commodus as a bad coin but it is useless for the question of whether the pattern was used then as well. When we study other coins we must avoid saying something never existed just because we no longer see it.

 

C89, Great taste in coins. You really got the 'Roman guys' all riled up over this. I could show 10 Indian coins and not get a peep.

I suppose thats what happens when you have a checkered SS Elephant denarius in minty.

 

I'm not sure I have ten different Indian Elephants (even using a loose definition of Indian) so I can't play unless I use minor varieties. Of course none of mine will be EF so we can't tell what their skin looked like. That was the big news of the Roman post that made this thread take off.

 

You've got a stampede, Doug.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_African_elephant