CoinWeek Article -- "Not Just a Pretty Face: 10 Beautiful Women on Ancient Coins"

[Roman Collector]

Mike Markowitz has written a CoinWeek article featuring "10 Beautiful Women on Ancient Coins." The article features 5 goddesses and 5 empresses. I don't think it is fair to expect mortals to live up to the beauty standard of Aphrodite or Arethusa, though. From the article:

 

[Phil Anthos]

Or Hera...

 

[Sulla80]

Any list like this is bound to create controversy...my first question: "has the author conflated the beauty of the subject with the beauty of the engraving"?

Perhaps the Romans would have learned the dangers of comparing the beauty of goddesses and empresses from the Trojan War?

From my own collection, I would add this coin to the list:

 

[Deinomenid]

 

THIS COIN IS FAKE. I AM LEAVING UP THE POST AS A WARNING

 

This is the  only coin I ever bought solely because I thought the image  touchingly beautiful. MACEDON. Neapolis. Circa 424-350 BC. Hemidrachm

I am not referring to the obverse...

 

 

 

Edited February 21 by Deinomenid
FAKE

[Sulla80]

@Deinomenid, your beautiful coin reminded me of this coin one which I found irresistible...

Phokis, federal coinage, circa 357-354 BC, AR Triobol/Hemidrachm, Philomelos, strategos

Obv: facing head of bull

Rev: Head of Artemis right; branch to left

Ref: Williams 304 (O220/R190); BCD Lokris 463.1; HGC 4, 1046

Notes: https://www.sullacoins.com/post/of-greeks-and-cattle

Edited February 19 by Sulla80

[expat]

It is in the eye of the beholder as they say. Some beguiling images posted already. It is interesting that engravers seen to have differing views of their subject on differing issues or denominations. This was the best looking Julia Domna I had seen for quite a while, so it was added to my collection.

Julia Domna AR Denarius. Rome, 215-7 AD. 19.8mm, 3.12gr.
IVLIA PIA FELIX AVG, draped bust right / VENVS GENETRIX, Venus seated left, holding sceptre and apple, Cupid standing right, legs crossed, resting his right hand on her right knee. RIC IV-1 389b.  Rome mint. RSC 205; Sear 7099.

 

[seth77]

Short-haired milf Mamaea from Antioch:

[rasiel]

This is my Crispina. She probably was pretty attractive way back when!

[Al Kowsky]

The die cutters at the Rome mint did a good job depicting Julia Mamaea 😊.

[Salomons Cat]

2 minutes ago, Al Kowsky said:

The die cutters at the Rome mint did a good job depicting Julia Mamaea 😊. 

Not sure if these portraits were realistic. I think that they are rather flattering. Nevertheless, I agree that she got a very charming portrait with a nice smile. 
Here's the denarius version of your coin 😊

Julia Mamaea, 228 AD, denarius (3.29g, 20mm).
Rev: FELICITAS PVBLICA, Felicitas standing left leaning on column holding caduceus.
Ref: RIC 335

[Dwarf]

On 2/19/2024 at 7:42 PM, Deinomenid said:

This is the  only coin I ever bought solely because I thought the image  touchingly beautiful. MACEDON. Neapolis. Circa 424-350 BC. Hemidrachm

I am not referring to the obverse...

 

 

 

I just want to turn the member´s attention to a thread in the false-coin-section of the German forum.
Member Amentia again did a lot of work and published all the fake dies for this type. The false coins appeared recently on the market, auctioned on ebay and a lot of respectable auction houses.
Just to show how good our Bulgarian friends are
https://www.numismatikforum.de/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=53721&start=1170#p600335

Please scroll the next pages to get an overview on all the dies - it is really frightful!

Regards
Klaus

P.S. I am sorry to realize that your coin is included, too
https://www.numismatikforum.de/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=53721&start=1200#p600471

Edited February 21 by Dwarf

[Deinomenid]

Thank you @Dwarf

I have actually been speaking with Amentia about the coin. I greatly appreciate your comment though. He was kind enough to go through in some detail why it was wrong (I had seen  his posts on it, even had saved them to a file on Neapolis fakes, so more fool me!). I follow  his posts and  opinions carefully, with this idiotic exception where I let my  heart (and a slightly poor photo from an old Martin Price pamphlet) persuade me

I contacted Leu  to find out the process for refund or explanation, and I am well-armed thanks to Amentia. I was going to wait for their reply  before posting separately on the coin, but I think I should do it now.

 

[ambr0zie]

This made me wonder about my hemidrachm, a pretty rugged example but I would still be unhappy if ...

I cannot find a match and the condition makes me more optimistic (ironically) but ... 

 

[JeandAcre]

11 minutes ago, Deinomenid said:

Thank you @Dwarf

I have actually been speaking with Amentia about the coin. I greatly appreciate your comment though. He was kind enough to go through in some detail why it was wrong (I had seen  his posts on it, even had saved them to a file on Neapolis fakes, so more fool me!). I follow  his posts and  opinions carefully, with this idiotic exception where I let my  heart (and a slightly poor photo from an old Martin Price pamphlet) persuade me

I contacted Leu  to find out the process for refund or explanation, and I am well-armed thanks to Amentia. I was going to wait for their reply  before posting separately on the coin, but I think I should do it now.

 

...Oh, No, @Deinomenid, it's morning here, and it didn't register at first that the fake was your own acquisition.  Very best of luck with Leu.  Surely a firm as prominent as they are will be above-board about the refund.  

[Deinomenid]

@ambr0zie I am  probably throwing the baby out with the bathwater now in my newfound fear of these coins,  but  on that German forum link there is a long series of  images  of the various fakes to check your coin against.

I also posted some of the reasons here literally just now -

but  in summary they include

1) A strange ratio of obverse to reverse dies, inconsistent with minting at the time, ie reverse v obv survival rates.

2) There are no proven genuine pieces of these and no connections to genuine pieces.

3) Related, the forgeries are always connected to each.

4) Centering and preservation, this may or may not be normal depending on the series (which is putting  it kindly!) and in real Neapolis hemidrachms there is often crystallized silver.

5) Apparently a lot of these Neapolis counterfeits were sold by counterfeit sellers who only had counterfeits on offer!

 

Please don't take my suffering as reason to doubt yours - I think the answer should be found on those  Numismatikforum images.

 

[Deinomenid]

20 hours ago, JeandAcre said:

Very best of luck with Leu.  Surely a firm as prominent as they are will be above-board about the refund.

Thank you. And just for the record Leu were excellent about it. I had no idea what to expect, but they were completely helpful. Refund/credit whatever I wanted, their fedex details etc.

 

[Rand]

Out of interest. When a refund is given let us say 10 years after the purchase, would it be the amount paid or also include some compensation for inflation? Otherwise the collector's losses may be significant.

[Dwarf]

Any refund of a dealer will only cover the original price paid - this is usually also stated in the published terms of sales.

Anything else would open the doors to "lost gains on investments", too.
For this reason - anyway in Germany - dealers usually offer no "guarantee" but use some other expression.
A guarantee not met may lead to any sort of compensation.

Regards
Klaus

[Limes]

On 2/19/2024 at 6:05 AM, Roman Collector said:

Mike Markowitz has written a CoinWeek article featuring "10 Beautiful Women on Ancient Coins." The article features 5 goddesses and 5 empresses. I don't think it is fair to expect mortals to live up to the beauty standard of Aphrodite or Arethusa, though. From the article:

 

Interesting! That Arethusa sure is a fantastic coin. 

Here's my not so pretty coin with the beautiful Arethusa: