Warning:NUDITY. Viewer discretion is advised.

Now I have your attention. I’m smiling imagining the moderators squad of CT watching if the rules of decency have been broken here. But let’s be frank; we are going to talk about flesh, skin and nudity....in roman coinage...

My wife keeps telling me for 25 years, when I’m coming out of the shower, Ocat you have the body of a god. Well thank you for the compliment. It made me think of how romans were considering nudity in life. At the opposite of the greeks, for them it was a shame to be naked in public. It was inconceivable for the average citizen of the empire and would have been a social transgression not wearing any clothes. It was a synonym of humiliation and a punishment. For example, convicts and slaves were undressed in public. The poet Ennius (239-169 BC)even wrote that "exposing naked bodies among citizens is the beginning of public disgrace (flagitium). One exception to public nudity was the Therma, though attitudes toward nude bathing also changed over time.

But it’s a whole different story on roman coinage. Somebody once wrote : nudity is the usual « costume » of the gods. The frequent representations of nudity in the Roman imperial coinage are part of an ideological discourse celebrating the success and durability of the Empire. Nudity was in fact acceptable and accepted. It has received little comment, either from ancient authors or scholars of the modern era. The gods and hero are generally represented in nudity, whether it is integral or partially masked by a garment. For example, Jupiter, Neptune ,Hercules and Mars are often half or bare naked on many coins. Meanwhile, the deities and feminine allegories never appear totally naked, and rarely partially undressed. Venus is naturally the goddess who reveals its most charms, especially when it is in its victorious dimension.

If you do a quick research on acsearch, you will be able to find hundreds of nice examples on Roman imperial coinage.


Here are my 2 examples :
Maximinus II
Jupiter naked

Crispus
Mars half naked




So now it’s the time to show us coins you’re shy to share with your visitors or you won’t dare to expose to your kids. Show us some nudity!
P.S. My wife just saw my post and forced me to make a precision about her comment on my god’s body : it seems that she was more referring to Buddha than to Apollo...

 

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Buddha or Apollo, a God is still a God @Ocatarinetabellatchitchix

Here is my naked Genius:

Maximianus
297-298 AD
AE Follis
Obverse: IMP CMA MAXIMIANVS PF AVG, laureate head right Reverse: GENIO POPV-L-I ROMANI, Genius standing left, modius on head, naked except for chlamys over left shoulder (falls low), holding patera from which liquid flows and cornucopiae. Mintmark: HTA

 

MYSIA, Kisthene
Orontes, satrap of Mysia, c. 357-352 BCE
AR Half Siglos or Tetrobol; 13 mm, 2.75 gm
Obv: Nude hoplite crouching left behind shield, spear at ready
Rev: Forepart of winged boar right
Ref: Troxell, Orontes 4; SNG France 1164A (Lampsakos); SNG von Aulock
Very rare.
ex X6 Collection


KINGS of MACEDON. Antigonos III Doson, 229-221 BCE
struck 227-225 BCE, Amphipolis mint?
AR tetradrachm, 32 mm, 17.1 gm
Obv: wreathed head of Poseidon right
Rev: Apollo seated left on prow left, holding bow; monogram below.
Ref: Panagopoulou 50–3 var. (unlisted dies); EHC 436; Touratsoglou 52–3; SNG Saroglos 933; SNG Alpha Bank 1046; SNG Ashmolean 3266


MOESIA INFERIOR, Nikopolis ad Istrum. Elagabalus
AE 18 mm, 2.8 gm
Obv: AVT K M AVP ANTΩNINOC, laureate, draped, cuirassed bust right
Rev: NIKOΠOΛITΩ NΠPOCICTPO N, Priapus standing left, drawing back his cloak to expose his phallus, bowl of fruit balanced on phallus, right hand extended pouring from patera
Ref: Varbanov 3811, AMNG 2022 (I own neither of those references and cannot verify the numbers)


MOESIA INFERIOR, Nikopolis ad Istrum
Julia Domna, Augusta
AE 22 mm, 4.5 gm
Obv: IOVΛIA ΔOMNA CEBAC; draped bust right
Rev: NIKOΠOΛITΩN ΠPOC ICT; ithyphallic Priapus standing right
Ref: Varbanov 2858

Herakles is often depicted nude. You'd think he'd want to protect his dangly bits while wrestling lions...

 

Wow @TIF, that is quite the bowl of fruit.... o_0

 

This thread is just pure....



I was hoping to see some secret photos of Eva Longoria striping, but all I got were some coin photos instead.

 

CONSTANTINE I
AE3
OBVERSE: CONSTANTINVS P F AVG, laureate and cuirassed bust right
REVERSE: SOL INVICTO COMITI, Sol, radiate, standing left, raising right hand, globe in left, chlamys across shoulder
Struck at Trier 313-15 AD
3.78 g, 18-19 mm
RIC VII Trier 42

 

No spintriae yet?

 

Here you go:



Here's a nude dude and Mionnet's description of him "Figure nue" (nude figure):




And here's Jove letting it all hang out on this not-exactly-fine-style antoninianus of Gallienus:

 

@Ocatarinetabellatchitchix your wife certainly has a sense of humor...

 

“At noon I observed a bevy of nude young native women bathing in the sea, and I went and sat down on there clothes to keep them from being stolen.”


Mark Twain

 

warning : the following photos are X rated and may not be suitable for children .

 

Being a lover, literally, of the human form of course when I first started collecting I had to have a few coins celebrating the beauty of the body. I was not surprised that featuring the nude human form were more expensive... It was how much more that did surprise me!
But, to quote Homer (Simpson), "The human wang is a beautiful thang."

 

4 pack and a couple grapes...

 

Alright, I'm caving in to mob pressure. Here's a nude Sol. If you look at it under magnification, his family jewels are kind of weirdly misshapen.

 

That second coin is particularly boldly detailed...

This point is explicitly expressed in one of Michelangelo’s (?) sculptures in the Hall of the 500 in Florence.

 

Reminds me of Olympic Pankration. Everything was allowed except for eye gouging and bitting. You could kick your opponent, choke them, hit them, break bones, etc. Even kick them in the genitals or grab and pull the genitals.




In fact, the sport was so dangerous that deaths were not unheard of, so Olympic judges started to award the victory to athletes who died as a way to discourage an athlete from purposefully killing his opponent.

 

Hrm, it seems this thread is pretty popular...

Here's my entry into the Most Well Endowed Non-Priapus competition:

(If I were Genius I would keep an eye on that eagle... )

Hercules wanted in too, so here he is (Genius has him beat though, pah!):


I hadn't noticed (really, truly!) how rarely the women disrobe compared to the men, except for Virtus (a little bit) and Venus. Here's Aurora though:


And the 3 Graces are not shy:


Personally I do not disrobe on coins, though you can see I'm OK with showing my top half and a little gluteus maximus here:

 

Thanks for your participation in this thread. I’m once again impress about the aesthetic quality of so many coins here. I would just like to share what I think in my humble opinion is the sexiest coin of all time. I choose to present it in gold, it’s even more magnificent. And of course it’s not mine.
Julia Domna aureus
VENERI VICTR
Venus half nude and seen from behind, with her drapery folded underneath her

 

"Venus seminuda":



Note: Sulzer, likely working with a worn, off-flan, or illegible reverse, mistakenly read "VICTRICI" for the abbreviated "VICTR" on the coin.