Friday fun

wuntbedruv · May 24

Friday is always a good day, usually because it is the end of the working week (for me, at least). However, this Friday was extra good as a small package of cheap auction wins from last week arrived with the morning post. All in all, I managed to snaffle seven bronzes for my 'curiosity cabinet'; three Greek; one Roman Republican and three Roman Provincial.

1. Seleucids. Seleukos I (?), double unit, c. 300-286 BC. Obverse: laureate bust of Apollo right. Reverse: Athena Promachos standing right, brandishing spear. Uncertain monograms in field, mint of Antioch or Seleuceia on the Tigris.

2. Macedonian kings, anonymous AE of the late 3rd to early 2nd century BC. Obverse: Macedonian shield with outer pattern of five quincunx motifs and five crescents, head of Herakles facing right at centre. Reverse: crested Macedonian helmet flanked by B-A in upper fields, grain-ear below helmet to left.

3. Aeolis, Temnos, AE unit, 3rd century BC. Obverse: ivy-wreathed head of Dionysos right. Reverse: vine with flowers enclosing bunch of grapes and letters T-A. SNG Copenhagen 256-7.

4. Roman Republican, semis brockage (after 211 BC). Obverse: bust of Minerva/Roma right wearing Corinthian helmet, four pellets above. Reverse: imprint of obverse from a second coin stuck in the original die. On a large flan and overweight for denomination at 25mm and 10.7g. The degree of wear suggests this minting error continued to circulate!

5. Phrygia, Laodikaea-ad-Lycum (Laodicea on the Lycus), pseudo-autonomous bronze struck under the authority of Ioulia Zenonis, mid-first century ad. Obverse: turreted and draped bust of Tyche (or Cybele?) right, ΛΑΟΔΙ/ΚΗΑ (retrograde). Reverse: Aphrodite standing right holding sceptre and dove, ΙΟΥΛΙΑ/ΖΗΝΩΝΙΣ. RPC I, 2925.

6. Emesa, Syria, Antoninus Pius. Obverse: laureate and draped bust of Antoninus right, [AVT KAI] TIT AIAΔ (?) CEB [...]. Reverse: EMI[CHW]N Δ, Tyche seated left on rock holding corn-ears, river god swimming below. RPC IV.3 10126 (temp) - this coin the second known for the type and better than the RPC plate coin.

Note: Emesa first began to mint coins in the reign of Antoninus Pius, who contributed greatly to the city's development. Its prominence increased further following the marriage of Septimius Severus to Julia Domna - who was a high-ranking member of Emesene society. Her family were descended from the city's original rulers prior to its incorporation into the Empire, retaining an element of their previous power by providing high-priests for the local sun deity El-Gabal. Domna's great nephew Bassianus (popularly known as Elagabalus), was high priest of the god in 218 when the revolt of LEG III Gallica at Raphanaea catapaulted him into the Emperorship.

7. Perge, Pamphylia, Philip II as Caesar. Obverse: laureate bust of Philip right above globe, AY K M IOY CEOY ΦΙΛΙΠΠOC CEB. Reverse: ΠΕΡΓΑΙΩΝ, Tyche standing left holding rudder and cornucopia RPC VIII, 21085.