The Ptolemy Connection

I've never seen the meaning of XP on Ptolemaic coins explained, so it gets described as a monogram. These are simply the letters chi and rho in Greek - dozens of Greek names begin with chi and rho, so when we see them on Ptolemaic issues, they probably refer to a governor or minter. (I believe the monogram only appears on issues of Ptolemy III, but I'm talking off the top of my head.)

Constantine did in fact adopt the letters as a Christogram on his labarum, simply because they are the first two letters of ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ. Constantine's Christogram is not connected in any way to earlier instances of the symbol - remember, it's just two Greek letters. The X is not a cross, as many think.

 

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Once upon a time I had a Ptolemaic tet... Ptolemy V, sold with the rest of my handful of Greek coins in Gemini XI a couple of years ago:

 

My rather small Greek dictionary has seven pages of words beginning with XP including several that would even seem appropriate to use on coins (good, useful, treasury etc.) not to mention the use that was taken by the Christians "anointed". We probably will never know which meaning was intended any more that we can explain why the infamous Nazi swastika appears on coins and art from times well before Christ let alone Hitler.

True, but they had a version that was which is at least as common on coins. For purpose of separating the two, I call this one a "cross-Rho"

 

Also known as the staurogram, the combination of the letters tau and rho.
http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/crucifixion/the-staurogram/

 

I have read this before but this link clears up a question I had never seen addressed. 'Gram' means drawing. OK. The combined letters are Tau T and Rho P so why is it not taurhogram or just Tau-Rho like we do with Chi-Rho? The answer from the link is that the Rho P here is not a letter but a simple drawing of a body on the Tau cross and the added S turns what looked like tauro into the root for crucify stauro. On the Chi-Rho, we are to take the P to be a letter but on the staurogram we are to take the P to be a stick figure with hanging down head. We learn something here every day. Thanks, Z.

 

Hi guys. Any help to ID of the monograms right side below the date and between the legs of the eagle. Many thanks any help welcome.

 

Holy crap in a cornucopia!!!

 

Worst. Gift. Ever.

 

The best thing about that AV Octodrachm was the affordability factor....these heavy gold coins are way cheaper then any Roman Aurei in comparable quality. They certainly minted a lot of AV coinage, thankfully! The AV Dekadrachms, however are out of reach for poor snooks like me