Squidward's Ancient Relative and a Random Roman Provincial

Ok, I know these are not ancient cephalopod god-creatures...But dang it if they don't look like octomen.

I've been wanting one of these cool Sri-Lankan coins since I first saw them. They have been hard for me to find in my price range though. I love the super stylized imagery.
I got lucky with my new (and @Marsyas Mike 's old) favorite ebay seller with awful descriptions and just as bad photos.
These were described as "Roman", which clearly they are not...


Queen Lilavati
One Massa
1197-1211 AD
Obverse: king, standing upon a lotus stalk, holding a lamp in his left hand and a flower in his right, a large lotus flower in field to right, all heavily stylized
Reverse: seated king facing right, left arm raised upward, holding a shell, all heavily stylized. Nagari legend (‘Sri Ra ja Li la va ti’) to right



"But what is that random Roman provincial you mentioned?"
I'm glad you asked...
This coin was also in the same lot and since the pictures were so bad, I just assumed it was a lower grade coin of the same type. When it came today though, I was mildly surprised to see that the "tentacles" were in fact grain ears.

I did some searching and believe that it is a provincial coin of Lydia, Philadelphia. I'm guessing pretty hard here but I think it may be Claudius on the obverse.


All-in-all, this was a fun set of coins for ~$6 a piece.

Let's see some of your very stylized coins or other provincial Roman coins with grain ears. Who knows, maybe someone has a better version of mine.
Thanks for looking

 

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Vespasian from Apameia, maybe??? RPC II, 1389, like this one.

 

My guy doesn't seem to have the fat neck like Vespasian.
I should've added that it is about 18mm and 4.52g.

Perhaps he will always remain a mystery.

 

My octopus coins: from Cholas, Pallavas, and Pandyas (aka panda as you'd call ).
Raja Raja Chola (985-1014 AD)


Perunjinga Pallavas of Sendamangalam (1228-1278)


Jatavarman Sundara Pandya I (1251-1268)


And an actual octopus from Syracuse.

 

I need to get me a real octopus coin!
Those others are great too. Especially the bull!

 

It could be Domitian or Titus: Look.

 

Those have the legend between the stalks and the beads on the reverse. Mine doesn't. Or at least not all the way around. Looks more like these (to me at least)

 

Have you figured out the other two (two each)?

This one is a bit scarcer but all of mine came from the same pickout pot years ago. I like this one of the king who came to power at 3 months but never got to one whole year.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Sri_Lankan_monarchs#House_of_Kalinga,_restored_(1200–1209)

 

These 2 are Sahasa Malla, 1200-1202AD I believe:


Sahasa Malla
One Massa
1200-1202
Obverse: king, standing upon a lotus stalk, holding a lamp in his left hand and a flower in his right, a large lotus flower in field to right, all heavily stylized
Reverse: seated king facing right, left arm raised upward, holding a shell, all heavily stylized. Nagari legend (‘Sri ma tSa ha sa Ma llai’) to right



The other 2 are harder to read and I am working on them still.

 

Mr NoodleMan:


Sri Lanka
Bhuvanaika Bahu
CE 1273-1284
Æ Massa
3.9g 19mm
King throne solar symbol altar flame lotus -
King reclining sankh-conch
Nagari-Sri Bhuvanaika Bahu MNI 851-52

 

Perhaps the Flying Spaghetti Monster IS real and medieval Sri Lankans were way ahead of the rest of us

 

A fun post @furryfrog02 : here's one of these Sri Lankan coins:

Sri Lanka (Ceylon), native coinage, Polonnaruwa period, Sahasa Malla,1200-1202, Æ Kahavanu
Obv: King standing facing right, holding lotus; altar, flame, and pellets in fields
Rev: King reclining right, holding sankh; king’s name and title in Brahmi to right
Ref: Mitchiner, Non-Islamic 840-1
Note: Here is a useful note on these coins from Peter Lewis, which I liked for the pictures for decoding the letters on the reverse.

and some grain ears with a caduceus from Egypt:

Roman Provincial, Egypt, Alexandria, Claudius, AD 41-54, Æ Diobol, 25mm, 12.57g, 12h), Dated RY 10 (AD 49/50)
Obv: TI KΛAV KAI CЄBACTOC, laureate head right; L I (date) before
Rev: Bundle of four stalks of grain and winged caduceus; AVTO–KPA across field
Ref: Dattari (Savio) 140; RPC I 5175; Emmett 78.10

 

I have a few of the old octopus man....

 

Nice!
Also, I think your picture helped me to ID the last 2 I couldn't figure out. They may both be Raja Raja. What do you think?

 

@furryfrog02.......Yes both Raja Raja and nice examples too!

 

I'm glad you posted that picture!
These coins are really cool. I will have to keep my eyes out for more.

 

@furryfrog02.....Just a little bit of information on your two Sahasa malla coins...
Codrington references 4 different legend variants of this ruler....
Here's my two with an overlay to show...
You'll notice that the SA has a T tag under 1st horizontal line-The HA is fuller with a tail on the bottom horizontal line-And there´s only a single LA...This is a much rarer type...You have 1 of each type as below congrats!

ps...Looks like you've posted the same obverse for the 2 Raja coins?

 

Awesome! Thanks for the info!
Yeah, I noticed that I biffed the pictures. I blame all the kids running around and distracting me.
Here are the corrected obverses with their corresponding reverses: