Friday Night Phrygian Caps

[Ten-Speed]

Early American Large cents between 1794 and 1797 featured Lady Liberty on the obverse. She, of course, was a Greco-Roman goddess. Next to her is a Phrygian cap as well as a staff (you can see it as it is adjacent to the right side of her neck.) In antiquity, Phrygian caps were a symbol of a free person who had been in slavery. During the American Revolutionary War, the hat and staff were used as a symbol. As an interesting  historical footnote, there was a version of the 1793 Large Cent that featured  a circular chain on the cent. It was meant to symbolize the association of the 13 states, but instead it reminded people of slavery, so the 1794 cent had leaves and stars on the back instead.

If you have an ancient coin featuring a Phrygian cap, it can be posted below. Thanks.

phrygian hat two.pages

[kirispupis]

Interesting. I always thought they were just a cap typical of Phrygia.

Here are mine.

Macedon, Aineia
Late 4th century BCE
Æ 16mm, 3.66 g, 9h
Head of Aeneas right, wearing Phrygian cap /
Bull butting right.
AMNG III/2, 8; HGC 3, 379
Ex G. Hirsch 296

 

Pontos. Uncertain mint (Amisos?)
circa 130-100 BCE
Æ 20mm, 6,34g
Phrygian cap (bashlyk) left; bow to left
Rev. Eight-pointed star, bow to left.
SNG BN Black Sea 980

 

PAPHLAGONIA, Amastris. Circa 285-250 BCE
AR Stater 23mm, 8.88 g, 12h
Head of Mên right, wearing Phrygian cap decorated with laurel branch and star / Aphrodite seated left, holding in extended right hand Nike, who crowns her with wreath, and cradling lotus-tipped scepter in left arm; rose to left.
Callataÿ, Premier, Group 2, 43 (D17/R21 – this coin); RG 5; HGC 7, 356
Ex Sigmund Collection.
Ex CNG March 1999

 

[John Conduitt]

11 minutes ago, kirispupis said:

Interesting. I always thought they were just a cap typical of Phrygia.

Originally, yes, but then the Phrygian cap became a symbol of barbarians (to the Romans, anyway). I think the association with liberty only came about during the American and French Revolutions, when it was confused with the pileus, which was indeed a hat given to freed Roman slaves.

Ti. Cl. Phileinos Hemiassarion, Time of Vespasian, 70-73

Sardis. Bronze, 12.5mm, 2.48g. Draped bust of Mên to right, wearing Phrygian cap; crescent on his shoulders; EΠI TI KΛAY ΦIΛEINOY CTΡA (Ti. Cl. Phileinos magistrate). CAΡ/ΔIA/NΩN (Sardisian) in three lines within laurel wreath tied below (RPC II 1307). Struck over a Nero Hemiassarion from Sardis from 65, under the strategos Ti. Cl. Mnaseas (bold letters visible): Laureate head of Nero to right; NEPΩN KAICAP ("KAIC" is visible at 12h). Laureate head of Hercules to right, with lion's skin tied around his neck; EΠI TI MNACEOY CAPΔIANΩN ("CAPΔ" is just below the bust of Mên) (RPC I 3009).

French African (Togo) Franc, 1924

Paris. Aluminium-bronze, 22mm, 5.01g. Laureate head left in Phrygian cap, date below; REPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE, A. PATEY (engraver). Abbreviated value divided by upright sprigs; TERRITOIRES·SOUS·MANDAT·DE·LA·FRANCE, 1 FR. ·TOGO·. Edge: Milled (KM 2).
 

Edited June 15, 2024 by John Conduitt

[MrMonkeySwag96]

I think any coin depicting the Dioscuri would qualify since they’re always shown wearing Phrygian caps:

 

Roman Republic, M Atilius Saranus 148 BC, Silver Denarius 3.79g, 19mm Helmeted head of Roma right "SARAN" to left, "X" below chin The Dioscuri riding right, each with a spear "M ATILI" below, "ROMA" in exergue Cr 214/1b

Edited June 15, 2024 by MrMonkeySwag96

[Ryro]

Julia Domna (Augusta) Pisidia, Antiochia. AD.193-217. Æ (21mm, 5.20g). IOYΛIA ΔOMNA AVG. Draped bust right, hair in horizontal waves, large bun on back of the head. / ANTIOCH MENCIS COL. Mên standing right, with foot on bucranium, wearing Phrygian cap, holding long sceptre and Nike; behind his shoulders, crescent; at feet, cock standing left. Krzyzanovska II/5; SNG France 1133 (same dies); SNG Copenhagen 39. 

[Roman Collector]

2 hours ago, Ten-Speed said:

Early American Large cents between 1794 and 1797 featured Lady Liberty on the obverse. She, of course, was a Greco-Roman goddess. Next to her is a Phrygian cap as well as a staff (you can see it as it is adjacent to the right side of her neck.) In antiquity, Phrygian caps were a symbol of a free person who had been in slavery. During the American Revolutionary War, the hat and staff were used as a symbol. As an interesting  historical footnote, there was a version of the 1793 Large Cent that featured  a circular chain on the cent. It was meant to symbolize the association of the 13 states, but instead it reminded people of slavery, so the 1794 cent had leaves and stars on the back instead.

If you have an ancient coin featuring a Phrygian cap, it can be posted below. Thanks.

phrygian hat two.pages 177.65 kB · 0 downloads

That's not a Phrygian cap; it is actually a pileus, an important part of the ceremony for manumission from slavery. See this piece I wrote elsewhere about Libertas and the pileus and vindicta.

[expat]

[Sulla80]

As @John Conduitt and @Roman Collector have highlighted - it was the pileus not the Phrygian cap that was the symbol of liberation.  Most famously the pileus shows up on the Eid Mar between two daggers on the coin issued by Brutus to celebrate the assassination of Julius Caesar.  French revolutionaries confused the pileus, worn by emancipated Roman slaves, and the Phrygian cap. During the French Revolution (1787–99) the Phrygian cap was adopted by the revolutionaries as “the red cap of liberty”.

Here's a pileus shown on a Roman republican coin.

Roman Republican, L. Farsuleius Mensor. 76 B.C. AR denarius. Rome mint.

Obv: Diademed and draped bust of Libertas right; XXX (control number) and pileus behind, MENSOR S C before

Rev: Roma holding spear and reins in biga, assisting togate figure into chariot; scorpion below; L FARSVLEI in exergue.

Ref: Crawford 392/1a. Sydenham 789a. RSC Farsuleia

Phrygian cap, French, 19th century. Red wool revolutionary cap, tricolor cockade. Linen, silk, and metallic cockade. Dye analysis 1989.  Boston Museum of Fine Arts.  Imaged used with thanks the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

This coin from year 8 of liberty in France i.e. after the establishment of the French First Republic in September 1792.  Ironically this could also be described as the year that liberty was lost again, as Napoleon overthrew the Directorate (le Directoire) on 9 November 1799 and the new constitution of Year VIII, adopted 24 December 1799, made Napoleon the "First Consul" of three (the "First Consul" held all the power) and established autocratic rule with a veneer of democracy much like the Roman Republic of Augustus.

https://www.sullacoins.com/post/an-ancient-coin-for-independence-day

https://www.sullacoins.com/post/fighting-for-liberty

https://www.sullacoins.com/post/new-beginnings-ancient-symbols

 

Edited June 15, 2024 by Sulla80

[shanxi]

Perhaps someone can tell the Boston Museum that the cap was worn the other way round.

[ewomack]

I don't seem to have any ancient coins featuring Phrygian caps, but I do have an "okay" 1794 large cent.

I'm not sure if the caps on early 20th century Mexican Pesos are considered "Phrygian" or not, but they have a similar style.

[ominus1]

Dioscuri hats of the 

[MrMonkeySwag96]

Two more coins of mine depicting the pileus:

 

 

[kirispupis]

Another Phrgyian cap

Kingdom of Macedon, Philip III Arrhidaios AR Tetradrachm
In the name and types of Alexander III.
Amphipolis, circa 323-317 BCE
Head of Herakles to right, wearing lion skin headdress / Zeus Aëtophoros seated to left, holding eagle and sceptre; Phrygian cap before, BAΣIΛEΩΣ to left, ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΥ to right. Price 112; Troxell, Studies, Issue H2, 61; Müller 854. 17.06g, 26mm, 3h.
Ex Gorny & Mosch Giessener Münzhandlung

 

And a Phrygian helmet

Thessaly, Peuma
Circa 302-286 BCE
Æ 2.23g, 12mm, 3h
Wreathed head of Achilles to right
AX monogram, to right, Phrygian helmet; ΠΕΥΜΑΤΙΩ[Ν] around.
BCD Thessaly I 1248; BCD Thessaly II 564-5 var. (arrangement of ethnic); HGC 4, 25.
Ex J. Greiff Collection
 

 

And then there's these, who I now understand were Phrygian.

[Qcumbor]

Phrygian caps :

 

Q