Saturday, May 28, 2005
Æ antoninianus, Gallienus, Samosata, Göbl 1702g(2)var
IMP C P LIC GALLIENVS P F AVG, Radiate draped cuirassed bust right | VICTORIA AVG, Gallienus right, holding spear and Victory, receiving wreath (or crown) from Victory left. Two pellets in exergue.
An odd item which I strongly suspect to be an ancient counterfeit. The emperor, standing on the right, isn't supposed to be holding the little statue of Victory beneath the wreath that the human-sized Victory is handing him.
Even comparing it to other coins of this series, though, it's hard to know what to think: there's not a lot of consistency from this mint.
Friday, May 27, 2005
Æ26, Dacia, Valerian, Sear GIC 4417var
[...] P LICI VALERIANVS [...], Laureate draped cuirassed bust right | PROVI[N]_CIA DACIA, Dacia standing facing, head left, holding standards, with eagle holding wreath and bull at their bases. AN VI in exergue.
The Dacian coins I own are a mix of official looking portraits and clumsily-executed ones like this. I don't know whether this is official mint product or an ancient counterfeit.
Thursday, May 26, 2005
Billon antoninianus, Gallienus, Antioch, Göbl 1561d
IMP C P LIC GALLIENVS AVG, Radiate draped cuirassed bust right | FORTVNA REDVX, Mercury standing facing, head left, holding caduceus right and purse left.
FORTVNA REDVX is a celebration of, or wish for, the emperor's return. This reverse was issued simultaneously for Gallienus and for his father, Valierian, and is part of the first issue for them from Antioch, preumably when Valerian re-occupied the city after the Sasanian Persians fled. There's a dramatic change in the appearance of the coins some time after Valerian was captured by Shapur, clearly occasioned by a change in engravers, but I know nothing of what prompted that.
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Æ sestertius, Philip II, Rome, RIC 268c
IMP PHILIPPVS AVG, Laureate draped bust right | PAX AETERNA, Pax standing left, holding branch left and long scepter transverse. S C in fields.
Son of Philip the Arab, Marcus Julius Philippus was raised to the office of Augustus in 247, while still a boy. He did nothing but serve as a sign of imperial stability in the case of his father's natural death.
But his father died in, or just after, a battle with the armies of Trajan Decius, and the praetorian guard finished off the son once that news was known.
Update: as mentioned earlier, I'm learning to use the GIMP. I'd left an odd editing artifact in today's image and not noticed it until lunch. Fixed now.
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
"a 70-line fragment from a lost tragedy by Sophocles"
Via Cronaca, what's going on with the Oxyrhynchus Papyri, and MSM's shortcomings in this regard, too.
Æ27, Smyrna in Ionia, Gallienus, SNG Copenhagen 1414
AVT·Π·ΛI·ΓAΛΛIHNOC, Laureate draped cuirassed bust right | CMYP Γ ΔIC [...] EΠ C M AVP CEΞ / CTOY, Two Nemeses standing facing each other.
Nemesis, daughter of Nyx, remorseless goddess of divine justice, arrived when Fortune fled. She was an item of interest at Smyrna even before fortune fled.
Monday, May 23, 2005
Silvered Æ antoninianus, Gallienus, Siscia, Göbl 1399ff
GALLIENVS AVG, Radiate cuirassed bust right | PROVIDEN AVG, Providentia standing facing, head left, pointing wand at globe left and holding cornucopia right.
Until now, I've edited images with Arcsoft Photostudio 2000 (which came free with a Polaroid digital camera, I think) which is adequate for the light-duty work I need to do, but with this newly-acquired coin I've begun using the GIMP, which will be much better to use, I think, once I'm accustomed to it.
Sunday, May 22, 2005
Æ25, Cotiaeum in Phrygia, Valerian, SNG Copenhagen 338
AVT K Π ΛIK OVAΛEPIANON, Radiate draped bust right | EΠI Π AIΛ ΔH·MH TPIANOVC IΠΠ / KOTIAEΩN, Aesculapius right and Hygieia left, standing facing each other. AP / X in upper fields.
Aesculapius, god of medicine was father to Hygieia, from whose name we derive hygiene. The reverse is quite similar to that of this coin from Irenopolis in Cilicia.
