FORVM`s Classical Numismatics Discussion Board
Numismatic and History Discussion Forums => Roman Coins Discussion Forum => Topic started by: gavignano on January 05, 2008, 05:27:12 pm
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While scanning Wildwinds to look for an example of an obscure Helena, I came across this incredible obverse, as in elaborate hair styles of a most famous female of ancient Rome. I know there have been posts of hairstyles of specific periods, and even a series of articles in the Celator about hairstyles but if you have got a knockout coin, as in great hair, lets see it. I have collected all types of ocins, but none of the US modern pieces is as cool as this one!
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What about a Magnia Urbica? Described as "Draped bust right on crescent, hair brushed in straight lines, plait carried up the back to top of head and running under stephane".
(https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10618/normal_RI%20138a%20img.jpg)
I must admit that my Helena coins have much simpler hairstyles.
Regards,
Martin
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I must have missed the articles in the Celator. But I made up a page about hairstyles a couple of years ago. It's quite basic, but if you're interested ..
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/moonmoth/hairstyle_coins.html
Bill
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Damned! Most of the interesting themes are pre-occupied by moonmoth! ;)
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It is a great page of moonmoths - though there is always scope to do the emperors as well as the empresses (Verus and Galba spring to mind though of course nature probably has more influence than fashion)
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:afro:
Malcolm
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Not all the interesting themes, though, not by a long way! But it shows you can have an interesting collection without needing to have expensive or perfect coins. Anyway, here's one that's not on my hairstyle page.
I posted this coin recently as a coin of the day, so please forgive the re-posting, but it's interesting in that you can see a double star or flower design in the clasp used to hold Aquilia Severa's hair at the back. I think, probably flowers rather than stars. If this is meant to show only one side, then there would be four flowers in all. The hair is rolled along the brow line, an ancient styling that would have been regarded as classical even in Aquilia's time. The rest of the hair is pulled smoothly back in a style you also see on Julia Paula.
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Aquilia Severa, wasn't she the vestal virgin who married Elagabalus? Perhaps her hair style choice reflects that?
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@moonmouth:
Your page is great - I didn't know of it before.
But unfortunately I think I have spotted a known fake on your site:
It is the Histiaia tetrobol, the first coin on the left side.
There have been sold fake hoards of that coins so that there are probably more fakes around than genuine ones.
Have a look:
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/fakes/thumbnails.php?album=search&type=full&search=Histiaia
At least it ist adequate to the topic of this thread, that true and fake ones can be easily distinguished by means of the hair style.
All the "wild hair" types are fake - compare to to the genuine one.
Attached a genuine one and my fakes one - because I fell in that pit too, of course. ;-)
[BTW: Sorry for the OT, because it is not Roman any more, but it DOES fit into this thread...]
Semper pax,
helcaraxe
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(...)
But unfortunately I think I have spotted a known fake on your site:
It is the Histiaia tetrobol, the first coin on the left side.
There have been sold fake hoards of that coins so that there are probably more fakes around than genuine ones.
Have a look:
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/fakes/thumbnails.php?album=search&type=full&search=Histiaia
At least it ist adequate to the topic of this thread, that true and fake ones can be easily distinguished by means of the hair style.
All the "wild hair" types are fake - compare to to the genuine one.
Semper pax,
helcaraxe
Thanks for pointing that out! But if all the "wild hair" examples are fake, then what about my only other example? The hair looks wild, but the coin is quite worn, much more than you would expect in a fake.
That genuine example is really nice - yours?
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Hello moonmoth,
unfortunately the genuine coin isn't mine. :(
Regarding your second coin I am not sure, it does not look like one of those fake hoard coins (where all dies are known). The "dots" in the hair are bigger than in these fakes. The style is somewhat simpler than I would expect, but until further evidence I would regard that as genuine.
Semper pax
helcaraxe
P.S.: Those Histiaia fakes are all around ebay - be carefully. I saw one of these fake hoards on a coin show last year in Germany myself (hundreds of coins!). To think that they are spreading throughout the collections... :(
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It does look like wild hair and Barry Murphy has repeatedly said that ALL 'wild hair' types are fake.
Andreas
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=40945.msg258885#msg258885
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=36409.msg230864#msg230864
http://ancients.info/forums/showthread.php?t=877
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Thanks again, Andreas too. I just had a look around and there are almost more fakes than real .. but I suppose I'd better get back onto topic! OK .. Emperors, then ..
For this to work, Constantine II would have to have a parting all the way down the middle of his head. Somehow I doubt that .. more likely an example of lazy engraving.
I seem to have photographed him with a lump of something in his ear, so maybe I will get him out and try again! If anyone watches CSI and wonders about all the "epithelials" they find on everything, this is what they mean.
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Bill,
What makes you think Aquilia Severa wears a decorated clasp at back?
I've always interpreted the "clasp" as a small nest formed from her braided hair, the herringbone-like "decorations" being the divisions between the different hair strands in the braid.
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It is very impressive hairstyle of course... but artificial and schematic in the late Roman style. Look at this denarius - it is wonder, looks like best greek specimens - the real masterpiece of ancient portrait!
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Bill,
What makes you think Aquilia Severa wears a decorated clasp at back?
I've always interpreted the "clasp" as a small nest formed from her braided hair, the herringbone-like "decorations" being the divisions between the different hair strands in the braid.
Curtis -
That has to be right in most cases with styles like this, and it's clearly demonstrated in this coin of Julia Maesa where you can see her hair has been braided and coiled at the back. But I could not see how the twin star or flower design on the Aquilia Severa coin could come about from something like this. Perhaps if the hair were made into two (or four) small tight coils, and not engraved very well, it might come out like that .. I am certainly inclined to think that your much greater experience of these coins is more likely to produce the correct interpretation than my few years is.
(Added:) If I stare at it and unfocus my eyes I can make it into a single coil ...
Bill
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A hair style not statics of Faustina I where the engraver has given the best of his art.
A light wind seems to move the hair.
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What a lovely diva Faustina I. I have thought of a circlet made of pearls or beads, in several rows, enclosing the terminal bun at the top of her head; I have known elderly ladies who had a very long plait of hair that was wound into a bun at the crown and retained by a net and adorned with the strung beads or pearls to adorn it.
The younger Severan ladies and their successors do have varying hairdos; one of them at least seems to have her hair twisted, then wound into a bun at the nape where the ends are secured by a pin (modern girls with long hair sometimes use a Japanese chopstick, but can buy somewhat smaller ones at hairstyling places) through it.
Pat L.
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Here are two more coins with great hair styles:
The first is another coin like the one that started this posting -- Helena from Trier (RIC 508).
The second is Galeria Valeria from Serdica (RIC 41).
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Wow, the Galeria is a great (hair) coin! thanks for sharing!
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here my " hairdressing salon "
Guy