I get it. Coins are a small medium for an artist to work with. A goddess's face on the reverse might be just a few square millimeters in surface area. I don't expect perfection on a face the size of a grain of rice. But still ... Pietas looking like an anthropomorphic lioness: A rather ghoulish-looking Pudicitia -- or perhaps she's just wearing a gas mask: The most unflattering depiction of Demeter I've ever laid eyes on:* Post your not-exactly-fine-style deities! ~~~ *And hopefully, I'll be the owner of this one soon.
My Diana Lucifera here is really an alien overlord wearing a type of ballistic vest, and holding some sort of cattle prod device to keep the inferior human slaves compliant as they mine materials to fuel the invaders' spaceships.
@Roman Collector I don't know why, but looking at your Demeter makes me think she could be a dead ringer for Danny DeVito's sister...if he has one. And your Pudicita looks somewhat similar to Jesus' depiction on Byzantine coinage. All she needs is the halo. And I agree, your Pietas would definitely be very popular at a Furry convention. Fantastic coins, all of them. I really like the weird looking deities.
Great thread idea! Blockhead. The Lego Lady Livia? Ceres, as portrayed by Edward Gorey. Yikes. Imagine this one coming at you. Flee for your lives! This seems to be some sort of tree creature. Here's Pax as some old dude. Check out the facial features. Just off the flying saucer. Take me to your leader. I'll take these cows, too. Thanks. Valerian II flying to heaven on an eagle? Or is it... Geez, who knows. Looks like a sandspur to me.
Abundantia's body and garb are well rendered but she appears faceless or completely veiled, which is sort of ghostly and creepy to me.
I hope someone remembers to resurrect this thread come Halloween! Great idea, RC. This is probably my weirdest looking well-struck goddess, Leopold Providentia the Hog-Mouth: I guess Claudius thought Messalina was a goddess, but somehow I don't think this tet is accurately depicting her facial features: Of course it's hard to beat fourrées for straight-up scariness: And if context is allowed: @TIF's riff on this one:
I almost forgot what has to be the ugliest depiction of Minerva in all of Roman coinage...the Servilius Rullus denarius. Mine is especially bad with Minerva having a botched nose job
TANIT (yeah, I HAD to go look: this issue had same die cut look in my SNG COP North Africa as my coin. Funky.) BTW, @Valentinian always has great reference books on his site! It is where I got my SNG COP North Africa so that I can chase down many of the Carthage coins... Even the Double Uraeus is funky. Carthage Zeugitania AR ½ Shekel 17mm 3.8g 2nd Punic War 218-202 BCE Sicily mint 216-211 BCE Tanit left Horse r sun as double uraeus SNG COP North Africa 359
Quite a beak on her, but I do not find the style of that coin to be especially primitive, nor the portrait ugly. It is quite a handsome coin, actually.
I agree, rather it is an odd style for Tanit in Carthaginian coinage. I almost passed capturing it, until I checked my SNG Cop plate book, and did several online searches. It is considered “rare”, so I really had to look around to confirm the style.
Talk about UGLY: Trajan. 96-117 AD. Amastris Paphlagonia. Æ (22 mm, 4.76 gm, 6h. Obv: AYT NEP TRAIANOC KAICAP CEB (ΓΔ?), radiate and draped bust right. Rev:AMACTPIC MHTPOΠΟΛΙON [ΛΙC?], turreted bust of Tyche left. RPC__; von Aulock__; SNG Cop__; BMC__; Sear__; CNG Research__; acsearch__; asiaminorcoins.com__; Isegrim__. Apparently UNIQUE. To be added to RPC as #1204A, so I am advised.
The Iberian mints had a little trouble making Tyche look very attractive. As this one from Carteia. As opposed to the Phoenicians from Arados.
