A bit of fun: Create a fantasy historical coin reverse

[Steppenfool]

As I keep repeating to the point of burning people's eyes, my collecting interest is coins that reference historical events/phenomena. This thread is for you to propose ideas for historical coins that you'd love to have existed. To illustrate what I mean, I will start.

I would have loved for Marcus Aurelius to commission some reverses with philosophers or philosophical motifs on them to match his portrait's beard. Obvious contenders could have been Socrates, the capstone of most philosophical schools including Stoicism (Marcus' school) or Zeno of Citium who founded stoicism proper. Some potential motifs could have been the primordial Stoic fire acting on matter. Per wiki:

"According to the Stoics, the Universe is a material reasoning substance (logos),known as God or Nature, which was divided into two classes: the active and the passive. The passive substance is matter, which "lies sluggish, a substance ready for any use, but sure to remain unemployed if no one sets it in motion". The active substance, which can be called Fate or Universal Reason (logos), is an intelligent aether or primordial fire, which acts on the passive matter:"

Perhaps the reason this wasn't possible was due to the reputation philosophy had for dissent and resistance in Imperial Rome. A notable example is the Stoic Opposition under Vespasian. However, Marcus Aurelius personally admired those involved in the Stoic Opposition and pays homage to them in his philosophical Meditations. Perhaps Marcus was sensible enough to keep his personal admirations to himself when they'd make for ineffective political statements!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoic_Opposition

Socrates' distinctive side profile could make a good reverse!

I would also have a coin of Hadrian to pay homage to his love of architecture and/or his defensive constructions as that is what he is most famous for in popular culture! His predecessor Trajan managed a bronze Danube bridge (built by Hadrian's favourite Apollodorus) coin, why couldn't Hadrian have a nice architectural coin? Perhaps the new and improved Pantheon could be a contender?

A simple drawing of Hadrian's Pantheon that could be engraved onto coin dies.

A side view if Hadrian wished to emphasise the new dome!

 Any other suggestions? Any time period is acceptable!

Edited November 25, 2022 by Steppenfool

[hotwheelsearl]

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/just-for-fun-washington-follis.379555/
 

a similar vein, I suppose 

[JayAg47]

Coin making is one of my favourite activities! 

I use wax to carve the die and terracotta clay as the blanks, I don't have access to proper tools, hopefully someday I'll make metal dies and blanks, and strike some coins! 

My recent work.

Also can you guess these two Roman emperors?

[thenickelguy]

I would guess the one on the left is Titus. Nice work

[Steppenfool]

11 hours ago, JayAg47 said:

Coin making is one of my favourite activities! 

I use wax to carve the die and terracotta clay as the blanks, I don't have access to proper tools, hopefully someday I'll make metal dies and blanks, and strike some coins! 

Very cool, if I came into money I think I'd set up a little coin mint in my house haha. I agree that the left is Titus or Vespasian. The right I think is Pertinax?

Edited November 26, 2022 by Steppenfool

[ominus1]

...man, our friend @TIF  has the good for doing obverse and reverse coin manipulation...maybe she will see this a post some...:)

[AncientJoe]

The recent developments in "artificial intelligence" image generators do a reasonably good job at generating coins (certainly far better than I could do with my stick-figure approach to art!)

Here are a few prompts I've used:

 

Edited November 26, 2022 by AncientJoe

[JeandAcre]

@JayAg47, I'm amazed.  In the Great Minds Think Alike department, your very cool examples triggered a long-lost memory of what I used to do as a kid.  Some Christmases, the family would fall into those really big, fat candles that none of us used.  The hardness of the wax was ideal for a pocket knife.  I'd plane them off, 'engrave' coin designs, and make 'coins' with some kind of softer wax, or clay when that ran out.  The one I remember best was supposed to be an Edward I groat.  The nearest I ever got to an Edward I freaking groat! 

Thanks, @Steppenfool, for your guess of Pertinax for the one on the right.  Cheerfully seconded!  From here, it really is a tough call whether the one on the left is Vespasian or Titus --thank you, there was a pronounced family resemblance to begin with (versus Domitian, for instance).

Edited November 26, 2022 by JeandAcre

[JayAg47]

7 minutes ago, JeandAcre said:

@JayAg47, I'm amazed.  In the Great Minds Think Alike department, your very cool examples triggered a long-lost memory of what I used to do as a kid.  Some Christmases, the family would fall into those really big, fat candles that none of us used.  The hardness of the wax was ideal for a pocket knife.  I'd plane them off, 'engrave' coin designs, and make 'coins' with some kind of softer wax, or clay when that ran out.  The one I remember best was supposed to be an Edward I groat.  The nearest I ever got to an Edward I freaking groat! 

Thanks, @Steppenfool, for your guess of Pertinax for the one on the right.  Cheerfully seconded!  From here, it really is a tough call whether the one on the left is Vespasian or Titus --thank you, there was a pronounced family resemblance to begin with (versus Domitian, for instance).

The first one is Vespasian, but I'd still accept Titus, given even the official ones really look similar, and the second one I was going for Septimius Severus!

[Steppenfool]

3 minutes ago, JayAg47 said:

The first one is Vespasian, but I'd still accept Titus, given even the official ones really look similar, and the second one I was going for Septimius Severus!

I thought the nose was too big for Severus and the beard slightly longer, which is why I opted for Pertinax.

To be fair, Severus was allegedly inspired by Pertinax and Commodus (I can't remember where I read this) for his portrait choice, so it's understandable.

[JeandAcre]

Yes, really the only thing that threw me off about the Septimius Severus was the beard length.  ...And, right, hasn't someone posted on this forum about early issues of Titus 'repurposing' dies of Vespasian?  Can't even recall if those run to provincial or 'official' issues, but in the latter case, it would obviously emphasize the resemblance itself over something as mundane as a delay in the arrival of prototypical dies.

[kirispupis]

I have to admit that this is a lot of fun.