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An Unusual Mode of Transportation
TIF2
Posts: 233 ✭
This wonderful coin was inexplicably unloved in a recent auction. Who in their right mind wouldn't want a coin that features a quadriga of hippocamps? With Poseidon?! It may not be fleur de coin but good luck finding one in better condition.
Unsurprisingly given the devices, this coin is from a land renowned for seafaring. Berytos (now Beirut) was positioned in the center of Phoenicia's coastal territory. I recently posted another coin from Phoenicia (Byblos dishekel) so I won't recap that history in this thread.
I'm unsure of the date of issue. It was struck in the first century BC, perhaps mid, perhaps 27/28. If you have any information pointing to a historically correct attribution, please let me know. I will continue to research the coin. Many important political changes occurred in that time frame and it would be nice to know more about the political climate at the time of this coin's issue. Was it struck while Pompey the Great was using Berytos as a naval base? Was it struck around the time of the Battle of Actium? Some time in between? Whatever the circumstance, the coin appears to be a statement of the city's naval power and prosperity.
PHOENICIA, Berytos
1st century BCE
Æ19.5, 5.9 gm
Obv: Turreted head of Tyche right
Rev: Poseidon standing left in quadriga drawn by four hippocamps
Ref: SNG Copenhagen 83
Post your coins which show unusual modes of transportation: flying snakes, bigas and quads of elephants, stags, goats, snakes, centaurs, lions, tigers, and bears. Oh my!
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That's a very interesting bronze tif2.
I can't wait to see what other pieces folks can post to this thread.
My only ancient depicting a mode of transportation has four horsepower.
World Collection
British Collection
German States Collection
Taler Custom Set
Ancient Custom Set
congrats, if I knew in which auction that coin was offered , I surely would have bid on it.
For unusual modes of transportation, I give you the Space Shuttle on a Nero dupondius struck in 64 AD!
See it there, on the reverse, taking off and about to crash into that lady giant's head?
That guy SteveX6 posted some amazing pieces in response. Now that I know what I'm looking for, lemme see what I can dig up from my collection ... nothing ancient but perhaps related ...
Amat Colligendo Focum
Top 10 • FOR SALE
She's pictured on this nice banknote from Greece, these notes come in 3 varieties : big red 1945 - purple 1947 - and yellow/grey 1947
Yippeee, another coin for the "Unusual Modes of Transportation" set arrived today.
Biga. Of Cupids.
Awesome.
At the risk of sounded totally girlie, isn't it adorable?
Roman Republic, L. Julius L. f. Caesar
103 BC
AR denarius, 17mm, 3.9 gm
Obv: Helmeted head of Mars left; CAESAR; (dot)J above
Rev: Venus Genetrix in chariot left, drawn by two Cupids; lyre to left; (dot)J above Ref: Crawford 320/1.
Jencek E-auction 26, lot 58, 14 October 2014. Ex CNG XXXI lot 699, September 1994; ex RBW Collection
A bit about this moneyer, from CNG's archives
L. Julius Caesar, a member of the gens Iulia and, thereby, a relative of Caesar the Dictator, was one of the earliest members of the family to attain the consulship. Governor of Macedonia in 94 BC, and consul during the Social War, he passed the basic law which offered Roman citizenship to the Italian allies; as censor along with P. Licinius Crassus, grandfather of the triumvir, he helped to enroll the first of them. He was an opponent of Marius and was killed on the latter's return to Rome in 87 BC. He was also the grandfather of Mark Antony.
Why Venus Genetrix?
The Julian family claimed descent from Venus through the Trojan exile Aeneas. As for the use of Cupid on this coin, Cupid/Eros is by some accounts the infant of Venus. I guess Venus was making the most of her children's gifts although one could argue that it's child abuse.
Regarding the (dot)J control marks, from a similar coin's description in a Goldberg auction:
The controls found on the denarii of L. Julius L.f. Caesar are the letters of the Latin alphabet (only through S) either alone or found accompanied by one or two pellets. The same control mark that is found on the obverse invariably appears on the reverse also, and no pair of controls has more than one pair of dies.
About the RBW Collection:
RBW curated an outstanding collection of Roman Republican coins, jumping from US coins to his first ancient coin in 1960. Like many of us, he was amazed that an ordinary person could own such an antiquity-- and for so little money! Next he bought a book-- Sydenham's work on coins of the Roman Republic-- and then he was hooked. Without coin collecting heirs, he decided to sell his collection late in life. The first part was offered by NAC in 2011.
The rest of his brief autobiography and a delightful introduction by Roberto Russo can be read in the NAC auction brochure. It's definitely worth a read.
<< <i>Biga. Of Cupids >>
?
Now that is certainly an unusual mode of transportation even on the West Coast.
Taler Custom Set
Ancient Custom Set
[URL=http://s593.photobucket.com/user/microtome/media/1583ParisAdministration.jpg.html]
Jeton for the Administrators of Paris 1583. It's actually a chariot pulled by unicorns with the city behind, but to me it reminds me of an early railway engine (locomotive)
<< <i>Biga. Of Cupids.
Awesome.
At the risk of sounded totally girlie, isn't it adorable? >>
A bit creepy, if you ask me.
But in a creepy-cool sorta way.
Definitely a cool coin. And an interesting theme.
That 1583 French jeton is awesome.
There are several Roman Republicans I will eventually add to this subcollection. Two more coins already in my collection fit the theme though:
THRACE, Pautalia. Caracalla
CE 198-217
AE29, 16.4 gm
Obv: AYT K M AY CEY ANTΩNEINOC; Laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right
Rev: OYΛΠIAC ΠAYTAΛIAC; Asklepios seated right on back of winged serpent
Ref: Varbanov 5007
Caracalla has a large number of coins featuring Asklepios. Apparently he was trying hard to cure himself of some disease-- physical and mental. From R.G. Penn's Medicine on Ancient Greek and Roman Coins:
"Why Caracalla visited the East is not totally clear, but he left Rome in the spring of AD 214 to set up his base in Nicomedia. Probably in the autumn of AD 214 he went to Pergamum especially to visit the shrine of Aesculapius to see a cure for his illnesses. What these were is debatable but Caracalla does seem to have been suffering both mentally and physically after the death of his father, Septimius Severus, and the murder of his brother, Geta. Cassius Dio gives an interesting, if brief, description of the illnesses of Caracalla and his responses (Dio Roman History LXXVIII.15):
For he was sick not only in body, partly from visible and partly from secret ailments, but in mind as well, suffering from certain distressing visions, and often he thought he was being pursued by his father and by his brother, armed with swords...But to Antoninus no one even of the gods gave any reponse that conduced to healing either his body or his mind, although he paid homage to all the more prominent ones. This showed most clearly that they regarded, not his votive offerings or his sacrifices, but only his purposes and his deeds. He received no help from Apollo Grannus, nor yet from Aesculapius or Serapis, in spite of his many supplications and his unwearying persistence. For even while abroad he sent them prayers, sacrifices and votive offerings, and many couriers ran hither and thither every day carrying something of this kind; and he also went to them himself, hoping to prevail by appearing in person, and did all that devotees are wont to do; but he obtained nothing that contributed to health."
Eleusinian Festival coin. Triptolemos in a winged chariot drawn by serpents (which looks more like a winged wheelchair on this small flan).