I've been trying to figure this coin out but due to the legends being worn and not knowing what that is on the reverse I'm having a lot of trouble. Any help? It is about 25mm & 13.3g. Thank you
It looks like Caracalla too me but not certain. At first I thought maybe shield, but the closest looking coin I could find on wildwinds.com was this: Irenopolis SNGLev 1617 Severus Alexander AE35mm of Irenopolis, Cilicia. Dated CY 172 = 223/4 AD. Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right [c/m: laureate head right within incuse circle] / Agonistic crown; date in legend. [c/m: Howgego 105.]
Thanks so much Randy! Very helpful... led me to this one - what do you think? PHOENICIA. Tyre. Elagabalus. 218-222 AD. Æ 27mm (10.48 g). Laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right, seen from behind / Prize crown inscribed HPAKΛIA*/OΛΥMΠIA in two lines; palm above, murex shell and B below. BMC Phoenicia pg. 278, 415; SNG Copenhagen -. VF, green and brown patina with some light earthen highlights http://www.acsearch.info/record.html?id=493700
I'm surprised to see them called 'crowns' but believe they are the prizes in local sporting events. I thought they were baskets or urns more like our modern trophy cups. Often there is a plant stuck in the top. Sometimes they sit on a fancy table in multiples (I have one with six) which I read to mean that that city's heroes won that many gold medals in the games. Does someone have an illustration showing the item on a head like a crown?
LOL! :smile Doug - I did some research and found info on a site that is gone now (google cache) but I thought it was good info so here it is: In classical times a distinction was made between crown games and prize games. The crown games were the four panhellenic games of the periodos, in which the victors received a crown as symbolic prize. This does not mean that they did not profit from their victory. They received financial and other rewards in their home town when they returned triumphally. At the prize games, panhellenic or local, the victors received material prizes. This could be valuable objets, like Panathenaic amphoras, or money. The cities competed to offer the highest prizes. At several games, athletes could even win one talent (6000 drachmas) , enough for a common man to maintain his family his whole life long. From the hellenistic period on the distinction between crown and prize games became obscured. Some prize games were upgraded to crown games and new games followed the model of the games of the periodos. These were is-Olympic or iso-Pythian games. At many new crown games also material prizes were given and at many prize games winners also received a symbolic crown. In the Roman period the emperor granted the status of the games.
Excellent but the items on the table which are pretty obviously what we see on coins still are not shown on heads so I don't think they are the crowns. Note the men in the picture are wearing wreaths on the head which I'd accept as a crown. I suspect winners of prizes also got matching headgear. Thanks for the research.
