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Numismatic and History Discussion Forums => Roman Provincial Coins Discussion Forum => Topic started by: archivum on March 08, 2007, 11:47:46 am

Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on March 08, 2007, 11:47:46 am
Faced with all the scarce/unpublished finds from this mint turning up in the last several years, I've decided to start a Nicaean-Types thread formed of one or more entries for every new type, which will also eventually be entered in an inclusive list of omissions from the Isegrim database.* Unless otherwise noted, the Antonine types that are posted in these listings are currently missing from RPC Online as well.  The first overlooked type: Marcus Aurelius / Harpokrates, AE16, 2.61 g (cf. RG 107, Antoninus Pius / Harpokrates):

   * "Isegrim Extended ... Nicaea," at https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=49390.msg307614#msg307614, a synoptic page ordering obverses by persons depicted; this includes links not only to the present Addenda but moreover to other omitted Nicaeans both elsewhere on the Web and in Forum. (Visit this separate page here on Forum for the virtually countless three- and four-standards issues from Nicaea: https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=44576.0.)  Isegrim's listings took in all the major Nicaean type-listings through 2001 (Mionnet, RG, Weiser [Katalog der Bithynischen Muenzen Koeln], and the SNG volumes through SNG Pfalz 6); nonetheless there may still be hundreds of types from Nicaea remaining uncatalogued.
 
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on May 11, 2008, 05:12:50 pm
Antoninus Pius / Nemesis standing l. spitting in bosom, wheel l., holding bridle, AE23, 7.51 g (cf. RG 109-10, Pl. lxix.11-12, Nemesis holding cubit-rule not bridle):
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on May 11, 2008, 05:14:26 pm
Geta / Hygieia stg. r. feeding snake, obv. cmks. Nike r. and crescent-wearing male head r., AE25, 10.29 g (cf. RG 335, Sept. Severus / Hygieia):
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Jochen on May 11, 2008, 05:27:08 pm
Ok, some coins of my collection. The first one is a very small one: 15mm, 2.31g. Geta as Caesar, Nike advancing r. with wreath and palm-branch. Rec. Gen., p.463, 515 & pl. LXXX, 21. Nike wears a lampadion as on the staters of Alexander!
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Jochen on May 11, 2008, 05:31:14 pm
The next one: Gallienus, Rec. Gen. 836 (Thanks to Lars!), BMC 154. Dionysos in elephant quadriaga l. I bet that the die-cutter has never seen an elephant before!
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Jochen on May 11, 2008, 05:37:54 pm
And a third one: Severus Alexander, SNG von Aulock 606 (Thanks to Charles Rodes!). This coin was very difficult to attribute! It shows Dionysos, the suggested ktistes (founder) of Nikaia, together with the nymph Nikaia. For more information please look at the thread 'Mythological interesting coins'!

Best regards
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Jochen on May 11, 2008, 05:48:18 pm
And I think a thread about Nicaea should have this coin too:
Caracalla, AD 198-217
AE 26, 12.35g
struck as Augustus AD 211-217
obv. ANTWNEINOC - AVGOVSTOC
Bust, draped and cuirassed, seen from behind, laureate, r.
rev. NIKAIEW / N (EW ligate)
Galley over waves l., 4 oarsmen sitting ahead, helmsman standing behind, at
front standard, at stern banner; emperor sitting l., holding spear and holding
patera in outstretched r. hand, in front of him standing Tyche of Nikaia and
presenting the young Dionysos to him, who raises his hands to him.
Very rare, F
Unpublished in the major works. I found a similar ex. at CoinArchives from the Gorny&Mosch auction #108, April 3. 2001.

Best regards
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on May 11, 2008, 08:52:18 pm
Thanks for all of these, Jochen.  That last coin is amazing, and though the type shows up in RG as well as in Isegrim * it's so badly described in those texts that I already link to your posting instead; still there's no harm in quality cross-posts!  By the way, though we call this Nicaean Addenda, everyone should feel free to treat it as a showcase for any Nicaean you're proud of, something still very clearly worth doing here.

   * https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=35585.msg284081#msg284081
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Steve Minnoch on May 11, 2008, 09:07:46 pm
The last time I posted this at any rate nobody could find any publication of this reverse type, let alone the whole piece:

[..............]MAIA CEB, Julia Mamaea, bust right, draped, ?diademed
NIK-A-[EI] (around) ΩΝ (exergue), centaur (Chiron?) handing object (scroll?) to warrior (Achilles?)
25mm, die axis: 2 o'clock

More attractive in hand than the horrible scan.

Steve
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on May 11, 2008, 11:46:06 pm

Outstanding and really mysterious; thanks for posting this singular coin!  I have added a note to your earlier posting:

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=8575.msg293767#msg293767

Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on May 12, 2008, 04:59:06 pm
Commodus / Nike on globe advancing r., KO[MO]DOS KAISA[R] / [NE]IKA[IEW]N, AE20, 4.32 g, obv. cmk. head l. (Artemis or Apollo?) *:

   [* Edit 12/10: Thanks to a scan posted by RPC's Dr. Volker Heuchert I now know that this issue is actually from Hierocaesareia in Lydia, http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/9320/, rev. legend IEROKAISAREWN]
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Arminius on May 12, 2008, 05:21:52 pm
Maybe unlisted:

Nikaia in Bithynia, Maximinus I. (Thrax), 235-238 AD.,
Æ Diassarion (23-25 mm / 8,14 g),
Obv.: Г IOVΛ OVH MAΞIMEINOC AVГ , laureate, draped and cuirassed bust of Maximinus right, seen from behind.
Rev.: NIKAI - EΩN , helmeted Athena Promachos standing l. with phiale in her outstretched right hand and inversed spear in left, round shield at her feet l.
Weiser - .

A.
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on May 12, 2008, 09:12:13 pm
Thanks, Arminius; I think it may be this one (from Isegrim; still a rare one), with the HR in ligature:

PRO:   BITHYNIA
PO :   NICAEA
PZ :   Between 235 and 238
   Obverse
VSG:   G IOYL OYHR MAXIMEINOS AYG
VT :   PORTRAIT MAN R / MAXIMINUS
VA :   WREATH LAUREL / CLOTHES
   Reverse
RSG:   NIKAIEWN
RT :   WOMAN STANDING HL(1) / ATHENA(1)
RA :   PATERA(1) / SHIELD / HELMET / SPEAR(1)
   Technical details
M  :   AE
GEW:   6.89(1)
   Bibliographical references
ZIT:   SNG AUL 7046(1)
   Additional remarks
FR :   VS: G IOYL OYHR MAXIMEINOS AYG RS: NIKAIEWN
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Pscipio on May 13, 2008, 05:46:02 am
The Aulock coin is a double die match to Arminius' specimen.

Lars
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on May 18, 2008, 03:12:04 pm
Maximinus I / Artemis running r., AE 23, 6.98 g:
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on May 23, 2008, 09:02:57 am
The coin pictured below is less than a completely new type -- it's apparently the second specimen known, and a worn one at that -- but it will perhaps serve to correct a suggestively wrong earlier reference.  The type is an Antoninus Pius,

http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/8335 (also http://www.coinarchives.com/a/lotviewer.php?LotID=26300&AucID=28&Lot=553, now alas a pay-site),

there identified as an AE27 bearded and ivy-wreathed Dionysos.  Another unpublished type (Marcus Aurelius) still not in RPC shows a typically beardless Dionysos:

[LINK REMOVED BY ADMIN]

As we know from the Isegrim summary, another type (AE23 bearded Herakles, http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/10007, also Aurelius) was first published (by F. Imhoof-Blumer) more fully identified as a bearded and ivy-wreathed Herakles; the same ought to apply to the present AE27, ivy-leaf at the back of the burly bearded head clearly present even on my worn specimen; as we know, there are many numismatic encounters between Herakles and Bacchus-Dionysos:

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=45625.msg286145#msg286145
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on May 27, 2008, 09:47:42 am
Under Valerian I and his son Gallienus Nicaea minted a startling array of games-issues (games that these issues variously reference as the Hieros Agon, Hieroi Agones, or Pythica Dionysiaca [Severeia]).*  Here's a scarce Valerian issue (one catalogued specimen) with a Gallienus issue completely omitted from Isegrim:

Valerian I, AE 24 7.79 g, ref. Koeln Univ. I.199, Radiate head r., value-mark H / Three prize-urns on a table inscribed ?AVG OYALE GALLHN, NIKAEIWN beneath, PYTHIKA DIONYSIAKA CEO surrounding

Gallienus, AE 24 6.84 g, Radiate head r. / Three prize-urns on a table inscribed OYAL GAL, DIO NYS IA [KA] below, NIKAIEWN surrounding

        * On the various names given to the Severeian games in Nicaea see  https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=36795.msg266702#msg266702.
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Arminius on May 27, 2008, 04:50:21 pm
Is this one listed?

Nikaia in Bithynia, Caracalla, 197-217 AD.,
Assarion / Æ 21 (23-25 mm / 5,40 g),
Obv.: M AVP ANT - ΩNINOC AYΓ , laureate head of Caracalla r.
Rev.: NI-KA - IEΩN , Homonoia (Concordia) standing left, holding patera and cornucopiae.
Weiser - ; Sear GIC - ; online resources - .

rgds
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on May 27, 2008, 06:51:33 pm
Thanks, Arminius; I think it's this one, although yours is much better than RG's specimen:

PRO:   BITHYNIA
PO :   NICAEA
PZ :   Between 198 and 217
   Obverse
VSG:   M AYR ANTWNINOS AYG
VT :   PORTRAIT MAN R / CARACALLA
VA :   WREATH LAUREL
   Reverse
RSG:   NIKAIEWN
RT :   WOMAN STANDING HL(1) / HOMONOIA(1) <ABUNDANTIA>
RA :   PATERA(1) / CORNUCOPIAE(1)
   Technical details
M  :   AE
GR :   25(1)
   Bibliographical references
ZIT:   WADD RG S456,459(1) / COLL WIEN(1)
   Additional remarks
FR :   VS: M AYR ANTWNINOS AYG RS: NIKAIEWN

http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3063.html
http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3194.html
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on May 28, 2008, 01:37:46 pm
Caracalla, AE 16, Radiate-laureate head r. *, ANT W N E I[NOS AYGO] / Flaming altar, NIKAIEWN, type recorded for Geta (Lindgren 3.187); for the simple laureate obverse, see Reply #32.

   * Possibly from the same obverse die as the Caracalla specimens posted at

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=37721.msg248918#msg248918
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Arminius on August 08, 2008, 06:49:48 pm
Julia Mamaea, 222-235 AD.,
Æ Diassarion (21-23 mm / 5,86 g),
Obv.: OVΛIA MAMAIA AVΓ (C?) , diademed, draped bust of Julia Mamaea right.
Rev.: NIKAI - E[ΩN] , Athena Promachos standing l., holding patera and leaning on spear, shield at her feet l.

sorry - not new ... finaly i found it : Rec. Gen.  477, 622 (Plate LXXXIII, 14)

http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3084.html
http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3198.html

regards
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: gordian_guy on August 09, 2008, 10:52:12 am


Thanks for starting this thread archivum. I can add several from my Gordian collection. Though I don't study Nicaea's coinage very closely I do keep my eyes open for the unusual types - not the ubiquitous standards reverses - and periodically I come up with something interesting. I will post 4 coins from my collection that are possibly known types for Nicaea but not necessarily for Gordian.

1) AE23, 5.87 g; 12h;
Obverse: M ANT GORDIANOS; Gordian, radiate, draped and cuirassed bust right.
Reverse: NI-KA-I-EWN; Demeter, wearing long chiton, standing l.; in extended r. stalks of grain; l. holds bundled torch.
cf Rec Gen 692 and 693 (Plate LXXXIV 28 and 29) for the type but not this more rustic version.
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: gordian_guy on August 09, 2008, 10:57:06 am


2) AE23; 5.39 g; 1h;
Obverse: -ANOS AVG; Gordian, radiate, draped and cuirassed right.
Reverse: -; EWN in exergue; Lion leaping to right. cmk Victory(?);
Type not found in Rec Gen for any emperor.

c.rhodes
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: gordian_guy on August 09, 2008, 11:03:36 am


3) AE24; 4.81 g; 1h;
Obverse: M ANT GORDIANOS AVG; Gordian, radiate, draped and cuirassed right.
Reverse: NIKAIE-WN; in exergue SAGARO; River God (Sangarios), nude to waist, reclining left, head to right; r. holds reed, l. elbow rests on overturned urn from which flows water.
Type not known for Gordian, but is found for other emperors: cf Rec Gen 386 (PL. LXXVII, 3) and Rec Gen 463 (PL LXXIX, 7) for a couple of examples.
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: gordian_guy on August 09, 2008, 11:18:13 am


4) AE23; 6.54 g; 1h;
Obverse: M ANT GOR-DIANOS; Radiate, draped and cuirassed bust right.
Reverse: NIKAIE-WN; City Goddess, Nicaea, seated left, head looking back to right; holding thyrsos in right and cornucopia in left.
This type is known for Maximus, cf Rec Gen 648 (PL LXXXIII, 33).

c.rhodes
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Jochen on August 09, 2008, 02:20:22 pm
A new coin from Nikaia without any references:

Bithynia, Nikaia, Severus Alexander, AD 222-235
AE 20, 5.1g
obv. [M A]VR [CEV] ALEZANDROC [AV]
       Head, laureate, r.
rev. NIKA - IEWN
       Bundle of 5 wheat ears tied together
ref.: ???

It would be nice if anyone could give me a reference.

Best regards
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on August 09, 2008, 03:59:11 pm
Thanks all for the largesse of new / unlisted coins from Nicaea!  The radiate Gordian / Demeter is most likely the same type as RG 486.694 (not pictured; one specimen, sale record); the lion bounding r with bucranium is listed for Sev. Al., Maximinus I, and Maximus *, though indeed not for Gordian III; though the others you mention do have this reverse, Gordian III with Sagaris is also not listed; I think that your Gordian / Seated goddess may be the same type as the Isegrim entries from SLG KOELN UNI I 070 / 071; meanwhile, Jochen's Sev. Alex. with bundle of wheat-ears is definitely unlisted, in Isegrim at least, though it does list a similar type for Vespasian, RG 404.49 (not pictured; full entry at http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3011.htm).  Again thanks for these useful additions!

*  Sev Alex / Lion
MC CLEAN 7495(1)
VGL: WADD RG S476,612
Maximinus I / Lion
http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3089.html
http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3198.html
SLG MC CLEAN 7499 SNG v. Aulock 638
Maximus / Lion
SNG v. Aulock 652
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: gordian_guy on August 09, 2008, 06:38:42 pm


Thank you archivum, I overlooked the entry for RG 612 for the leaping lion. I checked the McClean entry and indeed the type is illustrated and attested for Nicaea, which is useful. Nicaea, in fact most of the cities of Pontos, could stand a newer more complete reference work. It is a region dying for someone with access to large collections to catalog. RG, while a very useful reference and currently and seemingly the only major reference on the region, falls way short of works like AMNG. The lack of detail, typical of many of the early French references, is a real detriment. But, we go with it because it is the only game out there. Judging by the number of standards types for Gordian just trying to get a handle on that type alone would be a daunting challenge, never mind the challenge of trying to tackle the more varied types. Hopefully, archivum will put this up on his site at some point when he thinks it far enough along. The photos of the types alone are worth it even if they are already cataloged in RG - which does not illustrate every coin.

c.rhodes
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Jochen on August 15, 2008, 05:22:49 pm
I know that this coin is not unlisted but I want to post it here because of its historical relevance.

Bithynia, Nikaia, Domitian, AD 81-96
AE 26, 8.54g
obv. AYT DOMITIANOS KAISAR SEBA GER
      Bust, laureate, r.
rev. TON KTISTH NEIKAIEIS PRWTOI THS EPARX
      Head of Herakles, bearded, laureate, l.
RPC 239; BMC 20
rare, VF, deep green patina

The metropolis of Bithynia was in fact Nicomedia but Nicaea raises a claim upon that title as is shown by a coin issued under Domitian with the legend "the Nikaians, the first of the eparchias". From this claim emerged a legal dispute which finally was decided by Valens in that way, that Nicaea and Nicomedia both were allowed to call themselves the first city of Bithynia but that only Nicomedia should bear the title Metropolis. But this vain title was useless for Nicaea: During the new arrangement of the provinces Chalcedon became the metropolis of the anterior Pontus. It's known a discourse from Dion of Prusa - who lived in the time of Domitian - in which he challenged the Nicomedians to hold peace with the Nicaeans.
This coin was discribed already by S. Morell in "Numi imp., T.3, Numi Domitiani ex aere, tab.21.N.21", and by Mionnet II.451.N.216
(Samson/Schoell, Geschichte der griechischen Literatur, 1831) 

Best regards
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on August 16, 2008, 09:04:03 am

Very interesting, Jochen (is that another ivy garland -- see above!); certainly a historic type of unusual merit; thanks for posting! 

archivum
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Arminius on September 07, 2008, 04:24:18 am
Caracalla or Elagabalus (?), 218-222 AD.,
Æ Assarion (21-22 mm / 4,25 g),
Obv.: M AY[P AN]TΩ - NINOC AYΓ , laureate bust of Caracalla/Elagabalus right, slight drapery on far shoulder.
Rev.: NIKA[I - EΩN] , elephant with rider left, rider holding staff over elephant´s head.
Rec. Gen. II, - ; SNG Cop. - ; SNG von Aulock - ; Weiser (Cologne coll.) - .

I found another coin of this type: http://www.coinarchives.com/a/lotviewer.php?LotID=24582&AucID=26&Lot=594 .
(looks like same dies)

regards
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on September 07, 2008, 08:42:21 am

Thanks for posting, Arminius; a remarkable type, which I agree is as likely to be Caracalla and not Elagabalus.  (There's an unlisted Sev. Alexander as well, but its right-facing elephant lacks the mahout: https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=36332.msg230509#msg230509.) The Coinarchives entry refers us to RG 564 (with a right-facing elephant and mahout; see Reply #35), but RG doesn't show the obverse; the RG specimen's larger, as well, so I doubt that that issue has very much bearing on yours.  Anyway, quite a noteworthy coin, worth examining alongside the scan in C.A.:
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: kerux on September 07, 2008, 09:25:16 am
Another apparently unlisted for the thread:

Caracalla
Bithynia, Nicaea
AE16 (2.5g)
Obv: ANTΩΝΙΝΟCΑVΓ - Bust right
Rev: NIKAIEΩN - Lit altar with garland

Joe W.

Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on September 07, 2008, 10:53:05 am
Again well-spotted, Joe; we have the radiate-laureate obverse (Reply #19, also unpublished), but not the straight laureate type.*  Thanks for posting!  archivum

   * RG 454.443 pictures this reverse for Caracalla but then misdescribes it as a cista:

http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3061.html / http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3193.html.
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Arminius on September 07, 2008, 11:26:33 am
Another Nicaean elephant with mahout - but to right.

This time i´m quite shure the obverse shows Elagabalus with his froggy features:

Elagabalus (?), 218-222 AD.,
Æ Assarion (22-23 mm / 4,46 g),
Obv.: M AYP ANTΩNI[NOC AYΓ or similar] , laureate bust of Elagabalus right.
Rev.: NI-KA - IEΩN , elephant with mahout right, mahout holding staff over elephant´s head.
Rec. Gen. II, - ; Weiser (Cologne coll.) - .

A.
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on September 07, 2008, 11:38:36 am
Thanks Arminius; another great find; I am reasonably sure this must be the same type that RG does include (RG 564, pl. lxxxi.32) without bothering to show the obverse for us:

http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3077.html
http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3196.html
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Arminius on September 07, 2008, 01:08:28 pm
Archivum, you are right. It´s Rec. Gen. 564.

Thanks !
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: kerux on September 07, 2008, 02:13:02 pm
Here is another...I have found similar coins listed for Septimius Severus, Elagabalus & Geta, but never Caracalla:

Caracalla
AE15 (2,1g)
Nicaea
Obv: ANTΩNINOCAVΓ - Bust right
Rev: NIKAIEΩN - Eagle standing right; head left with wreath in beak

I have 2 specimens pictured below

Joe W.

Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on September 07, 2008, 04:48:01 pm
Thanks, Joe.  I linked us to your previous posting for this coin in Isegrim Extended but not in Nicaean Addenda, where it also clearly belongs:

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=28997

Isegrim Extended:
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=49390.msg307614#msg307614
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: kerux on September 07, 2008, 09:29:41 pm
Last one today...a nice left facing bull....

Geta
AE15 (2.4g)
Obv: ACEPTIΓETAC - Bust right
Rev: NIKAIEΩΝ - Bull standing left

Joe W.

Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on September 07, 2008, 09:54:00 pm
-- Interesting!  There are bulls standing right for Septimius Severus, Julia Domna, and Caracalla, but no left-standing bulls referenced for any of them.  I think that that legend starts out :Greek_Pi::Csquare::Greek_epsilon::Greek_Pi::Greek_Tau:, but it's Geta alright.  Thanks for posting!  archivum
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: kerux on September 07, 2008, 11:52:31 pm
-- Interesting!  There are bulls standing right for Septimius Severus, Julia Domna, and Caracalla, but no left-standing bulls referenced for any of them.  I think that legend starts out :Greek_Pi_3::Csquare::Greek_epsilon::Greek_Pi::Greek_Tau:, but it's Geta alright.  Thanks for posting!  archivum

Pulled the coin for a second look and I can confirm that the first letter of the obverse legend is clearly triangular with a point at the top...either an alpha or lambda...I'd say about an 80 degree angle between the two sides of the letter (not a 90 degree angle as one might expect from a partial "pi"). If it was intended to be "pi" then the entire left side is missing on an otherwise sharp and lightly worn area of the legend. The left side of the letter is slightly longer than the right side, and I can see why it might suggest a "pi" in the picture. In hand you can see that the base of the portrait neck is nearly touching the left "leg" of the first letter...absolutely no room to put another leg down to make an alpha into a pi. Below is a scan of a similar Geta coin with the same legend and a lambda with a sharper angle.


Joe W.

Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Steve Minnoch on September 08, 2008, 12:08:19 am
In which case it should be a Λ.

Geta's praenomen changed, he is known as Lucius on (I think) his earliest coins, but later he was renamed Publius.

Steve
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: kerux on September 08, 2008, 12:13:50 am
In which case it should be a Λ.

Geta's praenomen changed, he is known as Lucius on (I think) his earliest coins, but later he was renamed Publius.

Steve

Thanks, Steve...lambda it is...

Joe W.

Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: wandigeaux (1940 - 2010) on September 08, 2008, 12:26:57 am
The inscription on the obverse is Geta clear as day, but somehow the reverse has morphed into one of Marcianopolis?  Where is the bull, and what have I missed?  George Spradling
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on September 08, 2008, 08:23:31 am
Hello George; you're quite right, that is definitely no bull. Joe was just posting the Markianopolis coin as an extra example of the variant obverse legend for Geta; the main coin in question (Nicaea) is back in Reply #39.  But bull or not, we're still on-topic.
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: kerux on September 08, 2008, 10:47:05 am
Here is the first apparently unlisted Nicaean coin for consideration today:

Severus Alexander
AE23 (4.8g)
Obv: ΜΑVΡCΕVΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟCK - Bust right
Rev: ΝIK-A-I-EΩΝ - Hexastyle temple facing

There are some "near misses" for Severus Alexander in ISEGRIM which are noted below along with the differences when compared to my specimen.

ISEGRIM (42985) - RG, p.472, 579 (Pl. XXXII, #9)
AE21
Hexastyle temple with figure within, 3 columns to either side
Legend in exergue

ISEGRIM (42986) - RG, p.476, 614
AE25
Radiate bust

ISEGRIM (42987) - RG, p.476, 613
AE27, AE22-25
All types have legend in the exergue

ISEGRIM (43226) - SNG FITZW 4115
No crescent within the temple

The closest match for this reverse I can find is an issue of Elagabalus (RG , S. 470, 566v )

Joe W.



Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on September 08, 2008, 11:32:37 am
Interesting that the reverse-description of RG 472.579 closely matches your coin, but the picture does not (pl. lxxxii.9):
http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3079.html
http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3197.html
It's quite possible that RG conflated two entries; glad that you posted yours to point up the confusion in RG.  A quick visit to SNG UK indicates that SNG Fitzw 4115 has the crescent where yours doesn't; a strange variant, and also worth highlighting.
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: kerux on September 08, 2008, 04:06:39 pm
Here is an interesting Nicaean Telesphorus issue. I know RG has similar issues for Ant. Pius, Marcus Aurelius, Commodus, Sept. Severus & Geta but I have been unable to find any such issue for Julia Domna.

Julia Domna
AE16 (3.9g)
Obv: IOVΛΙΑCΕΒΑCΤΗ - Bust right
Rev: NIKA-IEΩΝ - Telesphorus standing facing

Joe W.



Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on September 08, 2008, 05:28:13 pm
-- More support for the notion that virtually all of these smaller Nicaean reverses were used for all  members of Septimius Severus' family circle, even if we have yet to find specimens for more than a few; thanks for filling in more of the blanks, Joe!
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: kerux on September 08, 2008, 07:35:15 pm
Here's another:

Marcus Aurelius
AE15 (2.5g)
Obv: MAVANTΩNINOCKAIC - Bust right
Rev: NIK-AI-EΩN - Torch with snake entwined

RG records a similar issue for Geta (p.462, 506)


Joe W.
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on September 08, 2008, 11:54:06 pm
Definitely not in Isegrim (or indeed RPC), but this to my eye this portrait looks more like Caracalla, as does the single Isegrim entry (RG 415, 129) with the same obverse legend as your coin:
http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3022.html
http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3184.html
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: kerux on September 09, 2008, 01:20:15 am
Definitely not in Isegrim (or indeed RSC), but this to my eye this portrait looks more like Caracalla, as does the one Isegrim entry with the same obverse legend, RG 415, 129:
http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3022.html
http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3184.html

The RG 415, 129 looks a bit "older" to me...but it may just be the poor quality of my copy.

Here is another youthful M. Aurelius apparently with the same obverse legend...

http://www.coinarchives.com/a/lotviewer.php?LotID=89992&AucID=96&Lot=307

Joe W.
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on September 09, 2008, 07:58:58 am
Thank you, Joe; it is useful to have a clearer instance of that RG type; but it still doesn't look much like most of the young MA portraits I've seen (often with a discreetly receding chin; see

http://www.coinarchives.com/a/results.php?results=1000&search=marcus%20aurelius+and+caesar+not+denarius+not+aureus+not+dupondius+not+sester+not+drachm+not+faustina

and

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=44745.msg280540#msg280540).
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: kerux on September 09, 2008, 09:35:49 am
Thank you, Joe; it is useful to have a clearer instance of that RG type; but it still doesn't look much like most of the young MA portraits I've seen.

I have to confess that I haven't seen many young MA portraits, so perhaps that's why these look OK to me...:)


Here's another apparently unlisted to start the day:

Septimius Severus
AE17 (2.3g)
Obv: AVKΛCΕΠCEVHPOC - Bust right
Rev: ΝΙΚΑΙΕΩΝ - Tetrastyle temple with dots within

I have found similar coins for Julia Domna, Geta & Caracalla...but nothing in ISEGRIM for SS.

Joe W.
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: kerux on September 12, 2008, 10:09:06 am
Another not in Isegrim:

Severus Alexander
AE20 (4.3g)
Obv: MAVPCEYAΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟCΑ - Bust right
Rev: ΔΙΟC/ΛΙΤΑΙ/ΟΥ; NIKAIEΩΝ - Lit altar with inscription (DIOC/LITAI/OV); legend NIKAIEWN around

This coin is apparently a variant of RG 477, 615. What makes it different (hard to see in pic) is that the reverse legend (except NIKAIEWN) is entirely within the altar...nothing in the exergue as in the RG specimen. Don't know if this is significant enough difference for this list, but here it is.

Joe W.

 
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on September 12, 2008, 11:57:16 am
Thanks, Joe; what's distinctive in your second posting is quite a big difference, as witness RG's specimen (picture Pl. lxxxiii.7):

http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3198.html
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Jochen on September 12, 2008, 04:35:34 pm
Julia Mamaea, Pan/Satyr on rev, 24x26mm, 9.32g. Recently found online (not mine!). Offered as unpublished.

Best regards
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: curtislclay on September 12, 2008, 05:41:11 pm
A highly interesting rev. legend, EVCEBWN EVGENWN NIKAIEWN, "(a coin) of the pious, well-born people of Nicaea", otherwise only recorded within a laurel wreath on an AE 26 of Sev. Alex., RG 621!
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on September 12, 2008, 11:08:23 pm
Thanks to both; very interesting!  For the record, here's that coin's current listing:

http://www.vcoins.com/ancient/beastcoins/store/viewItem.asp?idProduct=8274.

This unpublished Nicaean joins the company of several small Pans from the family of Septimius Severus

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=36177.msg229228

and large-module depictions of Pan with a wine-skin, some published and probably some not; see for instance

http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3025.html, http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3025.html, and the pictures at
http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3185.html.

Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: wandigeaux (1940 - 2010) on September 17, 2008, 12:57:14 am
I have posted this on another thread, but the availability of RG online allows me to post this one is where it really belongs.

Gordian III AE 32 Nicaea 18.34g.  RG-; Weiser-; SNG Cop-

Obv. MA_NT GO_PDIANOC [AVG] (Obv. as RG 710)

RX. NI_K_A_I_E/WN (Rv. as RG 700)

George Spradling
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on September 17, 2008, 07:52:03 am
Thank you, George; a remarkable specimen!  RG pictures the obverse of RG 710 (AE30), from the same obverse die as your specimen, but the obverse of RG 700 (AE33) receives only this shakier description: "Buste a gauche radie (?), avec la lance et le bouclier."  Any chance that that's just the same die, incompletely described?  Anyway, thanks for posting!  archivum

http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3094.html
http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3095.html
http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3199.html
http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3200.html

Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: gordian_guy on September 17, 2008, 09:36:18 am


George, what a beautiful example of this wonderful coin. Here is my very rough example. So far yours and mine are the only two of these that I have seen in person, so to say!!

thanks..

c.rhodes
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: wandigeaux (1940 - 2010) on September 17, 2008, 04:12:22 pm
Thank you both!  The verbal descriptions given in RG do not inspire a lot of confidence in me that two different variants are being distinguished, although the compiler had the advantage of having the coins in hand when he did so.  Charlie, if one of our coins is female perhaps we  could breed them and restore the species!  George S.
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: gordian_guy on September 17, 2008, 05:53:54 pm


George, archivum:

Just look at my coin and tell me that you know that there is a Medusa on the shield. I suspect that the example that Waddington et al had was in very poor shape - look at #706, it is the same die - no mention of the medusa - they could tell it is radiate, as you can on mine. So, I suspect it was just the state of the coins that limited the description and probably that is okay, as they described what they saw - maybe a mention of the medusa(?) would have been warranted. Look at the reverses of 698 and 700, plate LXXXIV 33 and 34 - how remarkable those two coins look except for the eros on 700 and the ? on 698. I think that 698 is the same reverse as 700 just doodled a bit???

c.rhodes
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: wandigeaux (1940 - 2010) on September 17, 2008, 06:27:26 pm
706 bis is described as "laure," not radiate, is it not?  This distinction would survive a lot of wear.  As to the Medusa on the shield on your coin, I can't swear one way or another: sometimes I think I see faint traces of it, sometimes not.  I agree that the reverses of 700 and 698 may very well be the same.  George S.
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: gordian_guy on September 17, 2008, 06:39:54 pm


Indeed it is, but here is my point, they are quite confident that it is laureate and yet not so confident that 700 is radiate and like you I think that the radiate types should be obvious. Likewise I suspect that a medusa head in on the shield of 706, so they are reporting what they see, or think they see, not what is actually there. I would like it if someone has a nice example of 706 to show; the dies looks very close to 710 LXXXV, 3 and besides I would like to have an example of the 706 reverse (I am tired of just accumulating the standards types - they are like collecting pennies by date and mint!!)

Thanks

c.rhodes
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: wandigeaux (1940 - 2010) on September 17, 2008, 06:50:37 pm
I would love a nice example of 706!!  But if one came up, you would outbid me in a heartbeat (especially now that the second mortgage market has dried up!).  George S.
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Arminius on October 09, 2008, 06:21:43 am
SSevNikAth.jpg:
Nikaia in Bithynia, Septimius Severus, 193-211 AD.,
Orichalcum Hemiassarion (16-17 mm / 3,58 g),
Obv.: CЄΠ CЄVH-POC AVΓ , laureate head of Septimius Severus right.
Rev.: NIKA - IEΩN , Athena standing l., holding patera and leaning on spear, shield at her feet l.
cf. Rec. Gen. 439, 326 (bigger denomination) ; Weiser - ;


cf. Münzen & Medaillen Deutschland GmbH, Auction 15, 330 (ex. J.-P. Righetti coll.)
00330q00.jpg:
http://www.coinarchives.com/a/lotviewer.php?LotID=90015&AucID=96&Lot=330 (probably same dies) .


regards

ps:
The coins are always greener on the auction house side/site.  ;)
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on October 09, 2008, 08:18:34 am
Thanks for posting this one; very interesting small portrait of Severus -- these are some of the quirkiest in the series -- other variants at

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=49390.msg307614#msg307614
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: curtislclay on October 12, 2008, 07:00:53 pm
Severus Alexander as Caesar, AE 21-22, 6.16g.

M AVP ALEXANDPOC KAI, bare-headed, draped, cuirassed bust r.

NIKAI - EWN, draped figure standing l., holding patera (?) upwards and long scepter.

Same obv. die as RG 578, pl. 82.8, there with rev. Nemesis standing l.

Rev. could be Hera, if her attributes are really patera and scepter.

RG 531 pl. 82.19, Sev. Alex. as Augustus, has a similar figure, definitely holding up a patera or bowl, and calls it "Dionysos holding patera and thyrsus."

RG 600 pl. 82.27, Sev. Alex. as Augustus, similar figure with crown of towers, holding patera horizontally before her not upwards, in l. hand apparently a thyrsos with protrusions at both ends, called "Nicaea".
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on October 12, 2008, 07:13:56 pm
Now that's a nice specimen; I suppose it could also be Demeter, but the attributes are often ambiguous even on a sharp specimen (witness Isegrim's entry * for SNG AUL 612, 7.96g, Sev. Alex. as Augustus).

   *RA: CORN-EARS(1) / WREATH CORN-EARS <?> / TORCH(1)
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: curtislclay on October 12, 2008, 07:36:12 pm
Demeter seems unlikely, because the attribute in r. hand doesn't look at all like wheat ears; the scepter seems to be thin and plain, not thicker and stepped like a torch; and finally she's almost certainly unveiled, while Demeter is usually veiled.
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on October 12, 2008, 11:23:55 pm
I agree that Demeter is generally veiled, but not always; and though what we see here doesn't look a whole lot like a torch, it's not rare for the top of the torch to be blurred at the top of the flan.  Perhaps von Aulock's specimen was just enough like a Demeter to get described thus in the catalogue; I will have a look anyway.

Veils apparently optional in the Balkans at least:
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=28962.msg187697#msg187697
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on October 13, 2008, 10:54:40 am
The von Aulock reverse does appear to be veiled, though it isn't that clear; the torch-top isn't either, though the corn-ears are definitely more plausible.
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: bpmurphy on October 18, 2008, 10:39:05 pm
Thought I'd add this interesting coin, currently for sale on VAuctions, to this discussion.

Barry Murphy

BITHYNIA. Nicaea. Julia Domna, wife of Septimius Severus. Augusta, 193-217 AD. Æ 32mm (23.36 g). Struck 208/209 AD. IVLIA CEBACTH, draped bust right; c/m: Nike standing right holding wreath / A[GO]NOQECIA, NIKAIEWN in exergue, athlete seated left, holding prize crown in right hand, long palm in left; agonistic urn on ground before. RG - (same obverse die as pl. lxxvii, 13); SNG Copenhagen -; SNG von Aulock -; BMC -; Howgego 254 (for countermark).

In 208/209 AD, the city of Nicaea celebrated the Philadelphian games to honor the fraternity of Caracalla and Geta. Numerous agonistic types are known, usually with the legend CEOVHPEIA FILADELFEIA. This coin shares it's obverse die with a games coin which features on the reverse the busts of both Caracalla and Geta (RG 397). According to Head (Historia Numorum), the title Agonothesia refers to "The office of an Agonothetes" and is known on coins from Thessalonica and Gordus Julia. Jones (A Dictionary of Ancient Greek Coins) defines Agonothesia as "The holding of a contest, the chief organizer being known as the agonothetes. The reverse type is similar to the coin of Septimius in RG, pl. lxxvi 15 except that coin has the normal games legend for Nicaea at this time, CEOVHPEIA FILADELFEIA and the athlete doesn't appear to be holding the palm branch.
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on October 19, 2008, 09:26:09 am
Thank you, Barry; a great complement to an earlier posting on two other Severeian Games bronzes with obverse die-matches:

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=36795.msg266702#msg266702
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: curtislclay on November 16, 2008, 08:50:52 pm
Geta Caesar, AE 26, 9.59g, 7h, centration dimples on both sides, recently acquired via eBay:

L.CEPTIM.GETAC.K[AI], bare-headed bust r., clothing uncertain, same obverse die as RG pl. 80.23.

NIK - A - IEWN, Hercules standing r., resting r. hand on club behind him, holding apples of the Hesperides (?) in l. hand before him, lionskin hanging down from l. shoulder; on r., tree in which dead serpent.

Worn and corroded, details of apples in hand and snake in tree uncertain.

According to H. Voegtli, Bilder der Heldenepen, p. 42, this is the commonest coin type showing Hercules' procurement of the apples of the Hesperides, one of his twelve labors, but it was not previously attested at Nicaea.  Voegtli knew the type at Alinda, Amorion, Kotiaeion, Pautalia, Perinthos, Tarsos, Temenothyrai, and Tomis, plus other variants of the type at Alexandria, Pergamon, and Sebastopolis.

RG 512, pl. 80.19, has Hercules slaying the Hydra for Geta at Nicaea with the same early praenomen L.

For Caracalla Augustus at Nicaea, RG pl. 78 shows five labors of Hercules types, namely Stymphalian birds, Anteus, Cerynian hind, Cretan bull, and horses of Diomedes.

Some or all of these probably show a youthful portrait of Caracalla and belong to the same issue as the labors types of Geta, but unfortunately RG illustrates none of the obverses, so obscuring the chronology.

No labors of Hercules types listed for Septimius Severus at Nicaea, but for Julia Domna RG pl. 76 has

1. Hercules slaying the Hydra, facing l. instead of r. as in Geta's type, and

2. Hercules bringing down the Cerynian hind, from the same rev. die as the corresponding coin of Caracalla.
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on November 16, 2008, 09:18:51 pm
Thank you, Curtis; an excellent catch; though the rest of the series of Labors is well represented, Herakles with the apples is totally missing from the Isegrim entries for Nicaea.
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Antiq on November 19, 2008, 05:02:48 pm
PRO:   BITHYNIA
PO :   NICAEA
PZ :   Between 193 and 217
   Obverse
VSG:   IOYLIA SEBASTH
VT :   PORTRAIT WOMAN R / IULIA DOMNA
VA :   CLOTHES
   Reverse
RSG:   NIKAIEWN
RT :   PRICECROWN(1)
RA :   BRANCH PALM(1)
   Technical details
M  :   AE
GR :   16(1)
   Bibliographical references
ZIT:   WADD RG S448,396(1) / COLL BERLIN(1)
   Additional remarks
FR :   VS: IOYLIA SEBASTH RS: NIKAIEWN
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Antiq on November 19, 2008, 05:05:08 pm
AE15
OBV: Julia Domna, bust
REV: NIKA - IEΩN, Two-handed (victory) vase containing two palm-branches.
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on November 19, 2008, 11:30:24 pm
Nice coin!  Described as "unediert(?)" or "unpublished," there's a much poorer specimen of this taller urn-type at

http://www.coinarchives.com/a/lotviewer.php?LotID=90020&AucID=96&Lot=335
 
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: slokind on November 20, 2008, 01:43:24 am
In parlous condition but with a lovely obverse die, but I can't find it.  If you expert Nicaea collectors say it's somewhere else, I'll delete this posting, but what can those letters be but [NI]KAI[EÔN]?
• 26 01 06 What can it be but Nicaea?  Æ28  14.64g
With these legends and this diameter, not RG, GIC, Varbanov IV, Lindgren&Kovacs.     
Pat L.
CLICKABLE IMAGE
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on November 20, 2008, 07:48:04 am
Yes, a beautiful portrait; RG has a different legend on one coin of this size (RG 446.379 [not pictured]), and apparently there's one like yours in Cologne (SLG KOELN UNI I 022).  But please don't delete!
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Arminius on November 20, 2008, 12:15:10 pm
Here is the Colonia-coin (= Weiser, Cologne coll. page 207, no. 22 (plate 2) ) - apparently from different dies:

Diassarion, 193-217 AD., revalued/countermarked 240-250 AD. to 4 Assaria,
11,77 g,
170°,
orichalcum,
Av.: IOYLIA - AYGOYCTA , darped bust of Julia Domna right, circular countermark "delta" on neck,
Rev.: NIK[AI] - EWN , Tyche, with chiton and peplos standing left, wearing kalathos on head, holding rudder with her right hand and cornucopia with left.
unpublished (til 1982),
cf. Waddington 379 ; obverse die match with SNG v.Aulock 586 .

rgds.
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on November 20, 2008, 12:47:26 pm
Yes, the two obverse dies clearly different, and dramatically different in style; yet we have just these two coins to vouch for either one of these mint-runs, or both.  Interesting what persists and what doesn't and how we piece together a past from it sometimes tolerably well, sometimes not; in this case I'm intrigued that the working esthetic could vary this much between two coins that legends and types would suggest are the "same."
 
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: curtislclay on November 20, 2008, 01:25:02 pm
The major difference is in Julia's coiffure: braids running up the whole back of the head on Pat's coin, only a small low nest of braids on the Cologne specimen.
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: slokind on November 20, 2008, 01:34:32 pm
Also, the one with the earlier-attested hairdo (mine), though it could have lost a fraction of a gram through corrosion, is nearly three grams heavier (11.77 : 14.64).  Pat L.
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Jochen on December 19, 2008, 07:12:17 pm
Today I came across this coin. It is a AE22, 6.87g of Severus Alexander from Nikaia. What me puzzles is the rev. I don't know whether it is a male or a female figure. And then: what is the object behind the figure? Obviously a tree, but is there a snake around the tree? Who could it be?

Is there a reference for this coin?

Thanks for your help!

Best regards
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on December 19, 2008, 11:03:51 pm
Hello Jochen; I should check the von Aulock plate first, but your coin shares a good deal with this one (description from Isegrim; clearly not quite the same obverse legend):

PRO:   BITHYNIA
PO :   NICAEA
PZ :   Between 222 and 235
   Obverse
VSG:   M AYR SEYH ALEXANDROS AYG
VT :   PORTRAIT MAN R / SEV. ALEXANDER
VA :   WREATH LAUREL / CLOTHES
   Reverse
RSG:   NIKAIEWN
RT :   WOMAN STANDING HL(1) / DEMETER(1)
RA :   CORN-EARS(1) / WREATH CORN-EARS <?> / TORCH(1)
   Technical details
M  :   AE
GEW:   7.96(1)
   Bibliographical references
ZIT:   SNG AUL 612(1)
FR :   VS: M AYR SEYH ALEXANDRO<S AYG> RS: NIKAIEWN

There is no mention here of a polos, but it seems that Demeter is wearing a polos on RG 475.602 (also noted in Isegrim; not pictured in RG).  Even if the von Aulock coin lacks it, your coin could well be a new variant.

Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Steve Minnoch on December 19, 2008, 11:08:32 pm
No mention of the tree or the snake in that record though...
Steve

Edit: I won't claim I know, but on what I can see I'd lean towards Hygieia, who can be shown holding a branch.
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: curtislclay on December 19, 2008, 11:24:12 pm
Note that the coin is of Sev. Alex. as Caesar, not Aug., rather rare at Nicaea.

The same rev. type occurs for M. Aurelius as Aug. at Nicaea on an AE 29 in Vienna, RG 178, pl. 71.10, rev. described at the nymph Nicaea wearing crown of towers, standing l. emptying kantharos with r. hand, behind her snake entwined in tree.
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: moonmoth on December 20, 2008, 05:38:40 am
Here's a similar reverse on a coin of Gallienus from Iconia, 23mm, 5.34g, showing Athena holding a staff or spear with a serpent twined round it.  The serpent has the same angularities.  She has an eagle in her right hand and a shield at her feet.

Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Jochen on December 20, 2008, 08:42:37 am
Thanks all for your help. So I think it is the nymph Nikaia. For Athena her characteristic helmet and the shield is missing. Hygieia with mural crown I have never seen. And for Demeter it would be an unusual garment.

BTW Shouldn't be it an owl in Athena's hand?

Best regards
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on December 20, 2008, 09:28:19 am
An additional twist: one Sev Alex reverse in RG sounds a lot like your coin, though the picture supplied in RG isn't like it at all: RG 475.600 (PL. LXXXII.27) * -- "Femme tutulee [[prob. a misprint for tourelee, "towered," as in 475.599, seated version]] (Nicaea) standing left, clothed, holding a patera in her left hand and leaning on a thyrsos with a gnarled staff (hampe noueuse)."  The coin pictured looks much like a typical Tyche, and that's how it's treated in Isegrim; what became of the gnarls on the staff, which are what on your coin we'd describe as a snake?  RG's picture may show the wrong coin, and your coin-type would then be the right one.  The snake would go tolerably well with a thyrsos, a tree, or a torch (snakes appear on the torch of Demeter on various types Forum's discussed), and on your coin where some see a tree others might see a torch or a thyrsos; the figure herself seems a bit syncretistic, to the point that the same type with minor die-variants may prompt more descriptions than one.  But to call her Nikaia works tolerably well, even if we can't say what she's doing with that snake on a stick.

   * http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3082.html // http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3197.html; insignificant notches appear at the base of the staff, hardly what I'd call gnarls.
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: moonmoth on December 20, 2008, 12:44:20 pm
BTW Shouldn't be it an owl in Athena's hand?

That does sound more likely than an eagle, but perhaps she is shown as the goddess of war, on the side of Rome.  I have no specific knowledge of this type; I was copying the seller's description.

Bill
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Jochen on December 21, 2008, 11:52:29 am
Hi archivum!

According the French tutulee I have found this word in several most older works too, f.e. Mionnet. Could it be an older unusual term connected with the Latin tutela (= shelter)?

Best regards
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on December 21, 2008, 12:52:20 pm
Thanks Jochen; indeed tutulée must be a word (pretty much = tourelée), since a word-search of RG fasc. 1 turns up four different instances (on pp. 111, 114,166,and 203); it's not in my French dictionary, and I baulked at the merest suggestion that Tyche or even Nikaia could ever be shown wearing some sort of tutu, but your Latin note here makes the notion a lot less preposterous.

RG fasc. 1: http://books.google.com/books?id=ipOQsjW8aNkC
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Arminius on January 07, 2009, 01:58:02 pm
Hello,

another candidate for the unlisted category:

(http://www.arminius-numismatics.com/coppermine1414/cpg1414/albums/userpics/10001/NikElHer2.jpg)

Elagabalus, 218-222 AD.,
Æ Diassarion (22-23 mm / 5,23 g),
Obv.: M AVP ANTΩNINOC AVГ , laureate head of Elagabalus right.
Rev.: NIKA - IEΩN , Herakles ("Farnese" type) standing right, leaning on club with his right hand and holding lion skin with left.
Weiser - ; Rec. Gen - ; coinarchieves - ; wildwinds - .

similar portrait (maybe same obv.-die) as http://www.coinarchives.com/a/lotviewer.php?LotID=137738&AucID=163&Lot=238 (http://imagedb.coinarchives.com/img/hdrauch/mbs10/00238q00.jpg)

rgds.
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: areich on January 07, 2009, 02:03:24 pm
Not the same die, look at the W of ANTWNINOC.

Andreas
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on January 07, 2009, 05:57:04 pm
An interesting coin (Elagabalus / Herakles standing r. nude holding lionskin, bow, and club), definitely not in Isegrim, which does list this reverse and this module, but for Tranquillina and nobody earlier. * Arminius, I have to agree that the :Greek_Omega: in your two obverse dies is different, but otherwise they're near-identical.

   * There's a similar much earlier design with the different rev. legend NIKAIEIS TON KTISTHN = "Nicaeans to the Founder": http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/10639/
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Arminius on January 19, 2009, 12:48:39 pm
A (probably new) assarion of the younger Caracalla Augustus:

(http://www.arminius-numismatics.com/coppermine1414/cpg1414/albums/userpics/10001/10921v.jpg)

Nikaia in Bithynia, Caracalla, struck 198-210 AD.,
Æ22 / Assarion (20-23 mm / 6.22 g),
Obv.: .. AYPH ANT - ΩNINOC AVΓ.., laureate head of the younger Caracalla right.
Rev.: [N]IKAI - EΩ[N] , Tyche, wearing polos, standing left, holding cornucopia and rudder.
cf. Waddington, Rec. Gen. 456, 455 ; Weiser - .

Maybe some day i have time for cleaning this one.


regards
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on January 19, 2009, 03:40:01 pm
-- And now also noted in Isegrim Extended; the portrait resmbles the one (Elagabalus?) posted here in Reply #124 :

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=49390.msg307614#msg307614

Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: bpmurphy on January 26, 2009, 01:56:22 am
This is not an unpublished coin, but the only one I've ever seen before is in Waddington. Thought I'd share it with everyone. It's currently for sale on VAuctions if anyone's interested.

BITHYNIA. Nicaea. Caracalla. 198-217 AD. Æ 27mm (12.70 g). Laureate and cuirassed bust right, seen from behind / Dionysos standing facing, head turned right, holding a grape vine in outstretched left hand and overhead; satyr walking left under outstretched left arm, panther to left, cantharus to right. RG 432; SNG von Aulock -; SNG Copenhagen -; BMC -.

Barry Murphy
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Arminius on February 11, 2009, 01:54:51 pm
(http://www.arminius-numismatics.com/coppermine1414/cpg1414/albums/userpics/10001/NikElTePe.jpg)

Elagabalus, 218-222 AD.,
Æ Assarion (22 mm / 5,75 g),
Obv.: [M AYP] ANTΩ - NINOC AYΓ , laureate bust of Elagabalus right.
Rev.: NIKAIE / ΩN , side view of the Tyche temple of Nikaia with hexastyle front; clipeus in the pediment and 9 columns at the side; all in perspective .
Waddington, Rec. Gén 1/3, - (cf. 470, 566 - front view of the temple) ; online resources - .

(also well-fitting the dimples thread, subcategory "both side dimple types in cheeks and columns")

regards
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on February 11, 2009, 02:24:12 pm
Thanks for posting this coin, very rare though perhaps not unlisted -- looks like Caracalla to me, so perhaps this is it, though too vague in spots:

PRO: BITHYNIA
PO : NICAEA
PZ : Between 198 and 217 
 Obverse
VSG: M AYR ANTWNINOS AYG
VT : PORTRAIT MAN R / CARACALLA
VA : WREATH LAUREL / BEARD
 Reverse
RSG: NIKAIEWN
RT : TEMPLE R
 Technical details
M  : AE
GEW: 5.07(1)
ST : 06(1)
 Bibliographical references
ZIT: SNG KOP 18 508(1)
 Additional remarks
FR : VS: M AYR ANTWNINOS AYG RS: NIKAIEWN 
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Arminius on February 11, 2009, 03:45:24 pm
But there is definitely no beard and so Elagabal is my guess.

That reference may (probably) be one of the bearded Caracalla types like Rec. Gen. p. 456, 461 or the second note on that side "Non revue", "temple polystyle vue de cote", Mionnet Suppl. 689, or page 459, no. 476-8.

Or this one - Rec. Gén 409 var. (but with head facing left):

(http://www.arminius-numismatics.com/coppermine1414/cpg1414/albums/userpics/10001/7182.jpg)

Caracalla, 211-217 AD.,
Æ Diassarion (23-24 mm / 8,74 g),
Obv.: ANTΩNINOC - AY-ΓOYCTOC , laureate, bearded head of Caracalla left.
Rev.: NI - KAI / EΩN , front view of the hexastyle Tyche temple of Nikaia set on three-tiered base; clipeus in pediment.
cf. Waddington, Rec. Gén 1/3, 459, 476 var. (bearded head right) ; Weiser - ; .

rgds.

Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Pscipio on February 11, 2009, 03:49:57 pm
It looks more like Caracalla to me, too. There are lots of Caracalla portraits without beard, see, f.e., this specimen, which I couldn't find in my books, either.

Caracalla AE23, 198-211 AD, Nicaea / Nikaia, Bithynia.
Obv: M AVPH ANTΩNINOC AVΓ, laureate head right.
Rev: NIKAIEΩN, Serapis, wearing Kalathos, walking right, sceptre over left shoulder, raising right hand.
22-23 mm, 6.39 g
Rec. Gén -, SNG Aulock -, SNG Leypold -, SNG Righetti -, Lindgren I -, Lindgren III -, Sear GIC -

Lars
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on February 12, 2009, 04:50:22 am
Interesting!  Isegrim has this Nicaean reverse for M. Aurelius, Macrinus, and Philip II, but no one in between; are there other examples out there we have yet to retrieve?  As for the unbearded Caracalla, I'd call this another young-Augustus example not so different from Arminius' previous posting at

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=45586.msg315565#msg315565
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Pscipio on February 12, 2009, 10:07:52 am
I coincidentally also had a second one, from a different reverse but same obverse die. It nicely completed the obverse legend. 23 mm, 5.97 g.

Lars
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on February 12, 2009, 11:03:41 am
I agree this must the same obverse, with what looks like an altered truncation; any notion of what could account for this?
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Arminius on February 14, 2009, 04:01:05 am
(http://www.arminius-numismatics.com/coppermine1414/cpg1414/albums/userpics/10001/6825.jpg)

Caracalla, 198-210 AD.,
Æ Hemissarion (15-16 mm / 2,60 g),
Obv.: ANT-Ω-N-I - NOC AYΓO , laureate and radiate head of Caracalla right.
Rev.: NIKA-IEΩN , brabeion (also called "prize crown" "prize urn") with one palm branch.

Waddington, Rec. Gén 1/3, - ; Weiser - (these automatic links are not intended by me and will lead you to the wrong references) ; BMC - ; same dies: http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/ric/caracalla/_nicaea_AE15_urn.jpg .
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Pscipio on February 14, 2009, 11:51:21 am
I agree this must the same obverse, with what looks like an altered truncation; any notion of what could account for this?

It looks like the same truncation to me, just filled a bit on the left while flatly struck on the right.

Lars
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on February 14, 2009, 03:07:30 pm
Thanks to both; Arminius, you are right that we ought to list this new prize-urn reverse for Caracalla, though I already do list its unusual radiate-laureate obverse:

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=37721.msg239057#msg239057
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=37721.msg248918#msg248918

And Lars, yes, I believe that accounts for the different truncation on your two examples; they're also quite close to the obverse of A.'s temple coin, although not quite the same.

Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Arminius on February 14, 2009, 03:37:05 pm
This might be the same obverse with a different view of the temple:

(http://www.arminius-numismatics.com/coppermine1414/cpg1414/albums/userpics/10001/9150.jpg)

Æ Assarion (21-23 mm / 4,47 g),
Obv.: M AYP ANTΩ - NINOC AYΓ , laureate bust of Caracalla right, slight drapery on far shoulder.
Rev.: NI - KA / EΩN , front view of the hexastyle Tyche temple of Nikaia set on two-tiered base; clipeus in pediment.
Waddington, Rec. Gén 1/3, 458, 475 (Pl. LXXIX, 19) ; Weiser - .
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on February 15, 2009, 12:59:58 am
Right; looks plausible, again with a different wear-pattern.  This specimen may share its reverse with your left-facing #106.
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Arminius on March 17, 2009, 01:25:20 pm
This one has that kind of easy removable looking dirt but in reality it proofs sticking like a limpet. I started my long time cleaning process to make it looking better.
So far it shows all necessary details:

(http://www.arminius-numismatics.com/coppermine1414/cpg1414/albums/userpics/10001/om0711-4.jpg)

Severus Alexander, as Caesar, 221-222 AD.,
Æ21 / Assarion (23-24 mm / 5,34 g),
Obv.: M AVP AΛЄΞANΔPOC KAI , draped, cuirassed, and bare-headed bust of Severus Alexander right, seen from back.
Rev.: NIKAI - EΩN , Hera standing left, her right hand holding up patera and leaning on sceptre with left.
Waddington, Rec. Gén 1/3, - ; Weiser - .
an unlisted new type?

I´m not shure if the reverse deity is really Hera. This reverse type is rather unusual fir Nicaea.

Demeter is my second option - but there are no grain ears and the long staff looks more like a scepter than a torch.

Maybe Pat or Jochen can clarify this.

regards
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Jochen on March 17, 2009, 02:17:45 pm
I think you are right with Hera. Pick has regularly called a female figure with patera and holding sceptre Hera, and so did I. There are depictions too of Persephone with patera and sceptre, but always standing together with her mother Demeter.

Best regards
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on March 20, 2009, 04:41:18 am
You are right; I've seen nothing quite like this from Nicaea; what she's holding looks more like a globe than a dish, and she seems to have something there on her back too.  Perhaps it's Aphrodite with Eros and apple *, or else Peace-Eirene with Ploutos; the fit isn't perfect with either, but it is a start.

  * There's an oddly close fit with the Venus Verticordia featured on some Republican denarii (though that one holds a scale not a globe) and in other respects with the draped Aphrodite found on certain Caesarean coins minted for Julia Domna.  By the way, who knows why those coins stopped showing up on a CoinArchives search?  Don't tell me there's another hacked website!
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on June 06, 2009, 02:54:45 pm
AE15, 1.61g, Geta head left, GETAS KAISAR  / Facing goddess with two torches, NIKIAEWN

I find no reference to this reverse type for a coin from Nicaea *; the goddess may be Demeter or Artemis or even three-faced Hekate -- see this earlier issue

http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/5973/

and this earlier thread:

 https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=45796.msg289274#msg289274

The unusual left-facing portrait of Geta ** is one of at least two left-facing Geta portraits on coins from Nicaea; see also

http://www.coinarchives.com/a/lotviewer.php?LotID=90046&AucID=96&Lot=361

   * Ed.: Now compare a second specimen (slightly sharper reverse) at

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=45586.msg376122#msg376122

   ** Also used for this very rare Geta / Pan issue:

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=36177.msg293766#msg293766

Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on June 09, 2009, 11:25:11 am
The same left-facing Geta obverse was employed for two other distinctly rare issues, one a version of the small-module Severeian Games series * and the other a Tyche seated left with the river Sagaris before her:

http://www.coinarchives.com/a/lotviewer.php?LotID=260324&AucID=385&Lot=336&Match=1

Does the rarity of these four apparently linked types connect all with a single mint-run and perhaps with some special occasion?

   * https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=36795.msg266702#msg266702
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Brown on June 12, 2009, 12:54:58 pm
I have an apparently unlisted coin too - Caracalla with an unknown reverse. Please see this ID thread for more info:
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=54110.0

Here is the coin. Apparently there is no mention of the emperor on the reverse in this form in any resources.

Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on June 12, 2009, 06:19:09 pm

Nice coin, and indeed it's not listed in Isegrim.  Size and weight would be helpful as well; thanks for posting!  archivum
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Brown on June 13, 2009, 01:43:16 am
Sorry, forgot about that.

Diameter is 29mm, weight is 12,84 grams.
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on June 19, 2009, 11:47:06 am
Another unlisted, now at auction on a major online site, possibly the same portrait (Caracalla?) posted here in Reply #101:

Elagabalus, Nicaea, Bithynia, AE23, 6.39g, Laur. hd. r. / Emperor standing l. with spear and patera, captive before
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on June 20, 2009, 07:38:59 am
Another unlisted, now at auction on a major online site, AE17, 2.1g, Caracalla laur. hd. r. / Lion walking r. (although Isegrim does list this reverse type for Commodus etc., search-string RT: lion RT: animal standing r):
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on June 27, 2009, 09:16:13 am

Isegrim is now working again, at a new website (http://isegrim.dasr.de/isegrim/anmelden.html); please continue to add new Nicaean types here (whether your coins or coins you have met with elsewhere) as per https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=45586.0.
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on July 22, 2009, 05:31:47 pm
With the sudden disabling of most coinarchives links it is clear that Nicaean Addenda should include the essentials of recent auction listings as well as new types Forum members themselves have acquired.  Thanks to acsearch.info, we're already able to post the essentials for several coins, often from the Righetti collection, here numbered for reference:

1) Septimius Severus / Zeus standing l., 26mm, 11.0g

http://www.acsearch.info/record.html?id=157764

2, 3, 4) Septimius Severus / Tyche and Geta / Tyche (2 versions; cf. Julia Domna and Caracalla, RG 446.380 and 456.457), all ca. 15mm, 3g:

http://www.acsearch.info/record.html?id=152526
http://www.acsearch.info/record.html?id=153067
http://www.acsearch.info/record.html?id=132134

5) Caracalla / Athena sacrificing l. over altar, 23mm, 6.28g:

http://www.acsearch.info/record.html?id=283573
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Jochen on July 23, 2009, 12:34:46 pm
A type recently on E-bay. I was killed by a sniper 10sec before end of auction.  :'(

Bithynia, Nikaia, Severus Alexander, AD 222-235
AE 23, 5.51g
obv. M AYR CEVH - ALEZANDROC AVG
        Head, laureate, r.
rev. NIKA - EWN
       Pan-Ephialtes, with goat-skin, goat-horns and goat-feet, stg. l. with raised r. foot, holding branch in l. arm and unknown
       object in raised r. hand.
ref. ???

Ephialtes, the deity of nightmares, a fellow of Pan, played a role in the founder mythology of Nikaia. He and Pan made the nymph Nikaia drunken so that Dionysos could seduce her. Usually he is depicted bent forwards, dragging a bag on the ground and holding a branch. Therefore I think on this coin we have Pan with some attributes of Ephialtes.

I'm interested to know more about the object in the r. hand.

Best regards
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Arminius on July 23, 2009, 03:30:11 pm
A type recently on E-bay. I was killed by a sniper 10sec before end of auction.  :'(


What exactly means "killing (a not living object) by a sniper in an online auction"?
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Jochen on July 23, 2009, 03:47:00 pm
The sniper has shot his bet 10 sec before end of auction and so 'killed' my bet without a chance for me to answer.

Best regards
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on July 23, 2009, 05:31:14 pm
Compare RG 474.594.  As for what Pan is holding, along with a branch Pan appears to be holding his lagobolon, a hunter's stick used to hit hares on the run (to hit hares, I suspect, among other things); it's pretty clear on this other Nicaean Pan issue:

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=45586.msg299170#msg299170 --

Better sniped than lagoboloned!
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on July 27, 2009, 12:56:29 am
Listing gathered from http://www.acsearch.info/record.html?id=84940:

Julia Domna / Infant Dionysos in liknon left, TON KTISTHN NIKAIEWN [To the Founder of the Nicaeans], liknon figure unique with this legend?
 

 
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on July 27, 2009, 09:35:27 am
Not in Isegrim (which does have Zeus seated, but lacking the eagle):

Septimius Severus / Zeus seated left with patera, eagle (?) before, 26mm, 9.36g

The question-mark here bears on whether the object at left is an eagle or three-headed Cerberus, with the peaks of the "wings" viewed instead as two schematic heads.  Cerberus would mark this seated figure as Hades-Serapis not Zeus; though the former is also unlisted for Septimius Severus it is listed for A. Pius and Macrinus * among others, but with more of a kalathos-headdress than we seem to have on this coin.

   *  RG 408.70 and 467.539 (Plates lxviii.4 and lxxxi.10), for which Isegrim unaccountably alters RG's Hades-Serapis to "Zeus Sarapis":

http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3015.html
http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3183.html
http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3074.html
http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3196.html

For Commodus / Zeus seated with patera and eagle (RG 431.253 [Pl. lxxiii.17]) see

http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3038.html
http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3188.html
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on July 27, 2009, 09:53:42 am
An unusual issue in several ways:

Maximinus I / Unhelmeted and unturreted goddess with torch or scepter enthroned left with Nike, 26mm, 7.65g

Maximinus has Roma-Athena with Nike and turreted Tyche-Nikaia, but this coin seems to be a conflation of Athena Nikephoros and a quite different type, Demeter with corn-ears, RG 479.638 (Pl. lxxxiii.26):

http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3086.html
http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3198.html
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Tom Mullally on July 27, 2009, 02:26:42 pm
This should be Zeus.  IF it were Serapis, we'd expect to see a kalathos.  THe critter looks more like an eagle to me.

Tom
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Tom Mullally on July 27, 2009, 02:27:31 pm
An unusual issue in several ways:

Maximinus I / Unhelmeted and unturreted goddess with torch or scepter enthroned left with Nike, 26mm, 7.65g

Maximinus has Roma-Athena with Nike and turreted Tyche-Nikaia, but this coin seems to be a conflation of Athena Nikephoros and a quite different type, Demeter with corn-ears, RG 479.638 (Pl. lxxxiii.26):

http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3086.html
http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3198.html



I don't see any corn ears on this coin.  Can you please explain the Demeter attribution?

Tom
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on July 27, 2009, 03:07:20 pm
Most Nicaean enthroned females are turreted or wearing a polos (Tyche) or else helmeted (Roma-Athena); one unquestioned exception is Homonoia, at least when she is labeled as such in a coin's actual legend.  Another figure with patera and scepter or staff has been called sometimes Hera, sometimes Homonoia; yet another (the Max. I example I cite) holds both wheat-ears and torch which together mark her as Demeter.  Though the figure on my coin holds neither wheat-ears nor a patera, the staff she holds looks more like a torch than a scepter to me, situating her a bit nearer to Demeter than to that other figure with patera; either way, she has borrowed a Nike in lieu of her more standard attribute. 
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on August 10, 2009, 01:18:34 pm
Septimius Severus hd. r. * / Athena standing l. with patera and lance, shield to l., 16mm, 2.60g: this reverse in small module not listed for anyone in Isegrim.

   * Same obverse as at https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=45586.msg341861#msg341861 and https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=55412.msg344228#msg344228.
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Arminius on August 17, 2009, 03:35:38 pm
Another candidate with a good chance to receive the attribute "unlisted":

(http://www.arminius-numismatics.com/coppermine1414/cpg1414/albums/userpics/10001/SHP002.jpg)

Marcus Aurelius, 161-180 AD.,
Æ Diassarion (26-28 mm / 12,64 g),
Obv.: AY K M AYP - ANTΩNEINOC , laureate head of Marcus Aurelius right.
Rev.: NIKA - IEΩN , Asklepios leaning on staff right, the snake climbing it, its head free to left. (category "herniated vertebral disk disease"  ;D )
Waddington, Rec. Gén. 1/3, - ; Weiser - .

regards
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: areich on August 17, 2009, 03:36:55 pm
That's a great reverse!
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on August 18, 2009, 11:29:44 pm
RPC seems to have it (just one specimen, a bit larger, at 29mm), but Isegrim doesn't; I agree that's a noble Asklepios!

http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/6254/
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on August 18, 2009, 11:35:38 pm

Just closed on XBax, AE15, 2.15g, Geta bare-headed r., P SEPTI GETAS KAI / Hermes stg. l. with petasus, purse, and caduceus, NIKAIEWN:
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on August 19, 2009, 01:48:02 pm
Elagabalus, AE22, 5.11g, Laureate head r., M AYR ANTWNINOS AYG / Reclining river-god facing l. with branch, NIKAIEWN SAGARIS

To make a long story short, this uncommon Nicaean reverse with the river Sagaris is attested in large modules starting with Julia Domna and in this midsize module starting with Julia's son Caracalla (RG457.463 [Pl. lxxix.7], M AYRH ANTWNINOS AYG, with one further example noted in Isegrim).  For this rare type, RG for once pictures the obverse as well as reverse; I believe that the RG coin may actually be a variant version of mine also featuring Elagabalus not his cousin. Both portraits bear careful comparison with the variant obverses employed for another uncommon Elagabalus reverse, an elephant walking right with mahout.

Though the second portrait looks a lot like a flattering conflation of Elagabalus' appearance with his cousin's, the first portrait's "froggy features" leave its own subject in little doubt. I think RG and CNG's cataloguers were right to assign the right-facing-mahout type to only Elagabalus, but there is a still rarer Caracalla (?) left-facing-mahout type that if used as a model for E.'s later issues may help to account for the greater-than-usual convergence between the two emperors' portraits on some mahout coins and the RG Sagaris example as well; for the Caracalla type see this earlier post in Nicaean Addenda:

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=45586.msg298606#msg298606
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on August 22, 2009, 05:14:18 pm

My own specimen of Nicaean Addenda 127.5 (above), AE 25, 5.24g, from a different obverse die:
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Kurt E on August 22, 2009, 08:12:17 pm
I don't know if anyone has posted this type, but I haven't found any reference for it yet.
Severus Alexander  22mm 4.47g
OBV- [  ]  :Greek_epsilon: :Greek_Xi: :Greek_Alpha: :Greek_Nu: :Greek_Delta: :Greek_Rho: :Greek_Omicron:C  :Greek_Kappa:
  bare head cuirassed bust right
REV-  :Greek_Nu: :Greek_Iota: :Greek_Kappa: :Greek_Alpha: :Greek_epsilon: :Greek_Omicron: :Greek_Nu:
     Athena standing left holding patera and spear shield at feet (no alter)

There isn't anything listed for Severus Alexander for this type as caesar.  The only reference I've found is a CF Lindgren 188 which Is as augustus and the Athena is very different

Kurt
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on August 22, 2009, 11:25:54 pm

Thanks for posting; Isegrim does list one S. Alex. Kaisar, but laureate, without the same legend, and with altar alongside Athena (Lindgren 1.144).  So your coin-type's a new one for Isegrim.
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Kurt E on August 23, 2009, 01:15:38 pm
How do these get added to Isegrim?

Kurt
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on August 23, 2009, 02:58:21 pm

I eventually pull them into Isegrim Extended *, where they can be word-searched; I don't think anyone has updated the Isegrim database proper since 2001.

   * https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=49390.0
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on August 28, 2009, 12:10:08 pm
The following reverse is unlisted in Isegrim for Septimius Severus or Julia Domna but is variously listed (as amphora and as vase) for the brothers Caracalla and Geta:

1) Septimius Severus, Nicaea, Bithynia, AE14, 1.59g, Laur. hd. r., SEOYHROS AYGOYS / Prize-vase or amphora with two palm-branches, NIKAIEWN
http://wildwinds.com/coins/ric/septimius_severus/_nicaea_AE14_RecGen_489cf.jpg and .txt

2) Julia Domna, Nicaea, Bithynia, AE14, 1.7g, Draped bust r., [IOYLIA] SEBASTH / Prize-vase or amphora with two palm-branches, NIKAIEWN
http://wildwinds.com/coins/ric/julia_domna/_nicaea_AE14_RecGen_396.jpg and .txt (wrongly there called RG 396, since that shows a prize-crown; for the prize-vase reverses actually listed in Isegrim see RG 460.489 [Pl. lxxix.29], Caracalla ["amphora"], and SNG Cop. 18.509, Geta ["vase"])
http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3067.html
http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3194.html

Especially with palms, these amphoras or vases are clearly prize-accessories; see this issue for the "Severeian Philadelphian Games" representing a prize-winner with both prize-crown and prize-vase or amphora (RG 443.360, pl. lxxvi.15):

http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3050.html
http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3191.html

(Similar issue from Ancyra discussed at https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=28925.msg342973#msg342973)

The ambiguous "urn" confounds matters still worse by eliding distinctions between vases/amphoras and prize-crowns entirely:

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=37721.0


Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on September 23, 2009, 05:01:41 pm

Isegrim notes one specimen of this issue (AE27, 7.64g) in an unpublished private collection, so I'll post this one here as a visual accompaniment (AE25, 6.98g):
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: krazy on October 08, 2009, 09:59:40 am
Greetings all! I recently aquired this apparently unpublished coin struck for Caracalla at Nicaea and decided to post it here, for your consideration, at Pscipio's advice:

Bithynia, Nicaea, Caracalla as Augustus, AD 198-211
AE16, 2.2 g
Obv: ANTWNINON AYGOUSTON - laureate head r.
Rev: CEOVHPEIA NIKAIEΩN - prize

Dany
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on October 08, 2009, 12:02:51 pm


Thanks! Further discussion at https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=56736.msg352630#msg352630
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: helcaraxe on October 11, 2009, 06:13:40 pm
I would like to add the following coin to the thread, even though it is not unpublished, stricty speaking. It is still very uncommon and I have found only one example.

AE, Caracalla; 198 – 217; 1,55 g; 14 mm.
Av.: [ANTΩNE]INOC AVΓO; laureate head right.
Rv.: NIKA –  IEΩN; snake emerging to the left from half-opened cista.
Rec. Gen. 443, Pl. LXXVIII, 25. Imh.-Blumer –. SNG Righetti –.SNG Leypold –

As far as it is possible to be sure, this one is from the same obverse die as the Rec. Gen coin.
It ist also one of the smallest of Nikaea as far as I can see.

Semper pax
helcaraxe
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: helcaraxe on October 11, 2009, 06:14:43 pm
I forgot:

http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3061.html
http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3193.html

Semper pax
helcaraxe
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on October 11, 2009, 11:19:58 pm

Thanks for posting; some related cista mysticas:

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=45275.msg283905#msg283905
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: helcaraxe on October 12, 2009, 03:50:53 pm
Thanks for reminding me of that thread! :D

Semper pax
helcaraxe
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Arminius on December 03, 2009, 04:50:16 pm
A (probably new) assarion of the younger Caracalla Augustus:

(http://www.arminius-numismatics.com/coppermine1414/cpg1414/albums/userpics/10001/10921v.jpg)

Nikaia in Bithynia, Caracalla, struck 198-210 AD.,
Æ22 / Assarion (20-23 mm / 6.22 g),
Obv.: .. AYPH ANT - ΩNINOC AVΓ.., laureate head of the younger Caracalla right.
Rev.: [N]IKAI - EΩ[N] , Tyche, wearing polos, standing left, holding cornucopia and rudder.
cf. Waddington, Rec. Gen. 456, 455 ; Weiser - .

Maybe some day i have time for cleaning this one.


regards

Fortunately i "captured" a better one of this type (both sides die match) with full visible legends:

(http://www.arminius-numismatics.com/coppermine1414/cpg1414/albums/userpics/10001/NikCaTy5.jpg)

Nikaia in Bithynia, Caracalla, 198-210 AD.,
Æ22 / Assarion (21-22 mm / 6,16 g),
Obv.: M AYPH ANT - ΩNINOC AVΓ , laureate head of the younger Caracalla (as emperor) right.
Rev.: NIKAI - EΩN , Tyche, wearing polos, standing left, holding rudder and cornucopia.
cp. Waddington, Rec. Gen. 456, 455 ; Weiser - .

 :)
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on January 04, 2010, 10:27:13 am

Recently sold on XBax, AE20, 4.0g, reverse Isegrim-listed for Julia Mamaea (1 specimen, AE22, 5g, SCHOLZ NZ 1910 S15,57), but not for Severus Alexander:
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Tom Mullally on January 04, 2010, 05:16:50 pm
Ohhh, so YOU got that one!  I had my eye on it but my snipe program didn't fire!

Oh well,

Tom
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on January 04, 2010, 11:20:56 pm

Wasn't me, either, but I really thought we ought to post it to maintain these Addenda's inclusiveness. 
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on January 17, 2010, 01:25:21 pm

AE15, 1.5 g, Geta bare-headed r.,  GETAS KAISAR / Naked Herakles resting on club r., NIKAIEWN, a reverse which is apparently unlisted for Geta and unattested on this scale from Nicaea.
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Arminius on January 17, 2010, 02:17:00 pm
(http://www.arminius-numismatics.com/coppermine1414/cpg1414/albums/userpics/10001/147-2c.jpg)

Septimius Severus, 193-211 AD.,
Orichalcum Hemiassarion (17-18 mm / 2,88 g),
Obv.: AV K Λ CЄΠ CЄVHPOC , laureate head of Septimius Severus right.
Rev.: NIK-A - I-EΩN , tetrastyle temple on 3 steps, pellet on pediment.
cp. Rec. Gen. 390 (Domna) , - 479-80 (Caracalla) , - 520-2 (Geta) ; SNG von Aulock - ; BMC - .
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: krazy on January 17, 2010, 05:51:55 pm
The following coin is presented as a provincial of Septimius Severus from Nikopolis ad Istrum (AE16, 2.3 gr.), but I think it was struck in Nicaea. It's similar with the one posted above by Arminius, though it has a different obverse legend (starts with CEV...). It may be unpublished.

 
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on January 18, 2010, 08:12:52 am

Thanks for posting these both, yes, apparently unpublished for Septimius, and two good illustrations of how varied the portraiture is even on these small coins from Nicaea.
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on January 24, 2010, 09:42:31 am

AE17, 3.4g, Commodus draped bust r., AYT KOMO ANTWNINOS / Commodus standing l. holding Nike on globe, AYT KOMODOS ANTWNINOS

This type is omitted from RG as well as RPC Online; it does show up in Isegrim, which catalogues one specimen, Lindgren 3.184, apparently from the same dies as my coin.  Lindgren lists his coin as an unpublished variant of an AE 21, Nicaean RG 436.296 (RG's is the second picture below); but is this likeness really specific enough to establish the new type-minus-ethnic as Nicaean?
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Tom Mullally on January 24, 2010, 01:47:59 pm
The plate coin clearly has the city ethnic for Nicaea.  Your coin does not.  I'd have a hard time attributing your coin to Nicaea, but the plate coin certainly is.

Tom
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: seth on January 27, 2010, 01:12:40 pm
at the suggestion of jochen, i will post a coin in need of id-ing.
its an apparently unlisted AE16mm, 1,7gr;

av : M.AVP.ANT.... ; diademed head right
rev : NIKAI - EWN ; coiled serpent
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Arminius on January 27, 2010, 01:34:49 pm
Apparently same obverse and maybe also reverse die:

(http://www.arminius-numismatics.com/coppermine1414/cpg1414/albums/userpics/10001/8493.jpg)

Nikaia in Bithynia, Caracalla, 198-210 AD.,
Æ Hemiassarion (16-18 mm / 3,43 g),
Obv.: AYT K M AYP AN[TON]INOC AYΓ , laureate head of Caracalla right.
Rev.: NIKAI - EΩ[N] , curled snake.
Waddington, Rec. Gén 1/3, - . unlisted

regards
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: seth on January 27, 2010, 02:23:48 pm
yes, thank you arminius, it certainly looks very similar.
mine has the first part of the legend (AYT K) off flan. also yours is like twice as heavy.
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on January 27, 2010, 02:28:13 pm

Thanks for posting; same reverse type attested for Septimius Severus and Geta (RG 441,337-41, and  464,517); one day soon we may also find one for Julia Domna, to round out the family array of these.
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Britannicus on February 12, 2010, 12:26:54 pm
Here is a new coin from Nicaea:

Æ 17, 6 h, 2.98 g. Obv. …• CEΠTI • ΓETAC… Bare head of Geta Caesar r. Rev. NIKAI-[EΩN]. Eros standing facing, head l., stringing his bow.

The reverse type is known for Commodus (RPC IV, 6255 provisional) and from this single specimen for Geta Caesar. The Geta coin is not unpublished, though, because it is included in our Prolegomena website (link below).

Francis
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Britannicus on February 12, 2010, 03:57:37 pm
AE15, 1.61g, Geta head left, GETAS KAISAR  / Facing torch-bearing goddess, NIKIAEWN
I find no reference to this type for a coin from Nicaea; the goddess may be Demeter or Artemis or even three-faced Hekate
Here is a second specimen of the type illustrated in reply #119.

Francis
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on February 12, 2010, 04:18:24 pm

Thanks for these postings, Francis; I had linked to the first of your Getas at

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=49390.msg307614#msg307614

but not here in Nicaean Addenda.  Also great to see your second specimen of the left-facing Geta / Hekate from reply #119:

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=45188.msg334415#msg334415

Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Britannicus on February 12, 2010, 05:46:22 pm
Here's another Nicaea coin that I haven't located in any catalogue yet.
Septimius Severus, Æ 26, 7 h, 10.30 g. Obv. ΑΥΤ Κ Λ CΕ [...] ΟC Π C [?]. Laureate head r. Rev. ΝΙΚ-A-I-EΩΝ. Zeus Aetophoros standing r., nude, hurling thunderbolt with his r. and holding eagle with spread wings on his outstretched l.

Francis
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Arminius on May 16, 2010, 03:34:25 pm
Maybe only a wrong description in Waddington:

(http://www.arminius-numismatics.com/coppermine1414/cpg1414/albums/userpics/10001/NikSSBra.jpg)

Septimius Severus, 193-211 AD.,
Æ 15 / Hemiassarion(?) (14 mm / 1,86 g),
Obv.: [CEOY]{HP}OC AYΓO , laureate head r., {HP} ligate.
Rev.: NIKA-[IEΩ]N , brabeion (price crown, "urn") with one palm on top.
Waddington, Rec. Gen. 443, 358 var. (head left, a slip?, obverse {HP} also ligate), only reverse on pl. LXXVI, 13 (from a different die) .

regards
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on May 17, 2010, 04:03:37 pm

Though the record is now gone from acsearch.info, I did grab a scan of one left-facing version of this prize-urn issue, now posted at https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=45275.0; so the Waddington (RG) description is most likely accurate, and your right-facing version does show a new die-combination.  Thanks for posting!
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Arminius on May 17, 2010, 04:42:03 pm

I did grab a scan of one left-facing version of this prize-urn issue...

Archivum, you live up to your name!  :)
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on May 17, 2010, 07:58:45 pm

Too bad we don't have magistrates' names to date these different dies; I'm amazed at the way portraits vary between these Nicaean issues, especially the smaller ones.
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on May 19, 2010, 07:48:38 pm

From a useful array of small-module Nicaean obverses on WildWinds' Septimius Severus page,

http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/ric/septimius_severus/t.html,

your obverse may share its die with this one, SEOYHROS AYGOYS (HR in ligature):

http://wildwinds.com/coins/ric/septimius_severus/_nicaea_AE14_RecGen_489cf.jpg
http://wildwinds.com/coins/ric/septimius_severus/_nicaea_AE14_RecGen_489cf.txt
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on May 20, 2010, 02:08:08 pm

The same obverse may appear with a full Severeian Games legend as well, though the line of the lip and the truncation-mark may distinguish this die; see

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=36795.msg266702#msg266702

and this die-matching specimen:
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Jochen on May 26, 2010, 02:36:50 pm
It would be nice to get a reference. Or is it an unlisted type?

Bithynia, Nikaia, Septimius Severus, AD 193-211
AE 14, 1.5g
obv. CEPTIMI - OC AVTO
        Bust, cuirassed, laureate, r.
rev. NIKAI - EWN
       Snake erecting in two coils l.
ref. ???

Best regards
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on May 27, 2010, 10:01:21 am

RG 441, 337-41 (Pl. 75.31-32), lists a number of different obverses with variants of this snake reverse, the snake differently arranged on the specimens pictured (cf. also Lindgren 1.141); it'd be interesting to see the whole range with the die-combinations they demonstrate.  I've seen two or three specimes with snakes in the same pose as yours, but lack pictures for any of them.

http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3048.html
http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3190.html
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Jochen on May 27, 2010, 03:04:01 pm
Thanks!

Jochen
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Agathodaimon on May 27, 2010, 03:28:47 pm
Hi Jochen,
I've got this one : it was sold as unlisted (Nikaia, Geta), what do you think about it ?
(http://images1.hiboox.com/images/2110/1f59046c2d73f885d50e43bec6e3073e.jpg) (http://www.hiboox.fr/go/images/divers/ae18bithynianicaea-geta-2gr12-unlisted-20usdvossen,1f59046c2d73f885d50e43bec6e3073e.jpg.html)
Thanks !
Regards.
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Jochen on May 27, 2010, 03:59:21 pm
Hi!

I have now uploaded Rec. Gen. I/3 and found this on p.464:

517. ΓΕΤΑC  ΚΑΙCΑΡ. Tete nu, a dr.
        Rx. ΝΙΚΑΙЄΩΝ. Serpent roule. La tete a g.
        AE 14.

Sadly there is no pic on the plates.

Best regards           
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Arminius on May 27, 2010, 06:38:51 pm
Hi Jochen,
I've got this one : it was sold as unlisted (Nikaia, Geta), what do you think about it ?
Thanks !
Regards.

Fortunately my database has it:

(http://www.arminius-numismatics.com/coppermine1414/cpg1414/albums/userpics/10001/11342.jpg)

Nikaia in Bithynia, Geta as Caesar, 198-209 AD.,
chalkus / copper quarter assarion (?) / Æ15 (14-15 mm / 2,05 g),
Obv.: ΓЄTAC - KA[ICAP] , bare head of the young Geta right.
Rev.: NIKA-I-EΩN , coiled and erect Agathedaemon serpent, head upturned left.
Weiser - ; SNG von Aulock - ; BMC - ; SNG Cop - (cf. 476 - Antoninus Pius) ; cf. Righetti coll., part 4, no. 363 (other dies) ; cf. Rec. Gen. 464, 517 .

 :)
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Agathodaimon on May 28, 2010, 11:58:43 am
 :laugh: I thank you both ! very interesting answers.
Regards.
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Arminius on June 29, 2010, 04:29:19 pm
Hello all i just wanted to add another unlisted Nicaea , this one found in an uncleaned lot of 500

Julia Domna
AD 194-217
OBV:  IOVLIA AVGOVCTA
Draped bust right.
REV: NIKAIEWN
A single star above a crescent.

MINT: Nicaea


Kind regards

Are weight and size measurable?
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Kurt E on July 31, 2010, 05:46:09 pm
A possible unlisted issue for Plautilla  16 mm  2.57 g

OBV- PLAVTILLA [CEBACTH]   Draped bust right

REV - NIKAIEWN  Basket with poppy and grain ears

RG -
Isegrim -
Righetti -

Kurt

EDIT: Here is a second nicer example of this issue I recently aquired (4/2013)
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on August 01, 2010, 11:21:20 am

Thanks for posting; I did reference this one, basket with corn ears and poppy, but via a coinarchives link which is now pretty useless:

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=49390.msg307614#msg307614
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Tom Mullally on September 10, 2010, 09:26:17 pm
Not in:

SNG Von Aulock
SNG Righetti
SNG Leypold
Corsten
SNG Cop
Lindgren I
Lindgren III
BMC
Similar to Imhoof-Blumer, Griechische Munzen, p.76, #121.

You know I want this coin, right?

Tom
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: areich on October 16, 2010, 12:48:06 pm
I can't find this Maximinus and I don't even know what to call the figure on the reverse.

obv: Г IOVΛ OVH MAΞIMEINOC AVГ , laureate, draped and cuirassed bust of Maximinus right, seen from behind, uncertain countermark
rev: NI-KAI-EΩN, female figure holding cornucopia and branch(?), leaning on column(?)

AE26, 7.80g
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Tom Mullally on October 16, 2010, 01:34:07 pm
Can the powers that be move this thread to the Nicaean Addenda thread?

Tom
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: areich on October 16, 2010, 02:18:25 pm
Oops, talk about merging threads.
Title: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Tom Mullally on October 16, 2010, 10:17:48 pm
I can't find this Maximinus and I don't even know what to call the figure on the reverse.

obv: Г IOVΛ OVH MAΞIMEINOC AVГ , laureate, draped and cuirassed bust of Maximinus right, seen from behind, uncertain countermark
rev: NI-KAI-EΩN, female figure holding cornucopia and branch(?), leaning on column(?)

AE26, 7.80g



I think the reverse figure is Nemesis holding a rod.  What you're seeing as a column I think is the drapery of her cloak over her elbow.

I think the obv C/M is the head of Tyche, upside down.

Tom
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on October 29, 2010, 11:35:27 am

Note that the obverse legend is actually Г IOV OVH MAΞIMEINOC AVГ; I think you will find the reverse type in RG, p. 480 and somewhere on Pl. lxxxiv.

http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3087.html
http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3209.html

The countermark looks to me like the value-mark H; I think I've seen the same on another Maximinus Nicaean issue.

Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: OldMoney on December 08, 2010, 12:28:45 am
I have come across a couple of what appear to be new types to add to the corpus.

1. (http://www.oldmoney.com.au/110185a.jpg)
Bithynia, Nicaea, Marcus Aurelius 161-180 Æ35
Obv: Bare-headed, half-length figure of Marcus Aurelius wearing cuirass
and paludamentum right.
Rev: Pan standing left, wearing conical cap, holding branch and wine-skin.
(25.65g) Not in standard references (that I could find).
Same obverse die as RPC online 5913 (Rec.Gen. 138, pl.LXX,5).
Same reverse die as RPC online 5507 (Rec.Gen. 157, pl.LXX,22).
Traces of reverse legend: ΕΠ ΩΦΕΑΝΝ-OY / ΝΙΚΑΙΕΙΣ in ex.

2. (http://www.oldmoney.com.au/110186a.jpg)
Bithynia, Nicaea, Severus Alexander 222-235 Æ27
Obv: Laureate, draped and cuirassed bust of Alexander right.
Rev: Dionysus in panther biga right.
(9.80g) Not in Rec.Gen.; Not in BMC; Not in SNG Cop.; Not in SNG Schweiz II;
Not in SNG Hunterian. Unpublished?

3. (http://www.oldmoney.com.au/110187a.jpg)
Bithynia, Nicaea, Gordian III 238-244 Æ32
Obv: Radiate, draped, and cuirassed bust of Gordian left, as seen from the
front, holding spear and shield which is decorated with an aegis (head of
Medusa), two countermarks.
Rev: Nike standing on right crowning a seated Tyche who turns to face her.
(20.05g) Not in any of the references I have to hand. Same obverse die as
Rec.Gen. 710; Gorny & Mosch 114/171; Helios 5/631; and CNG E233/281.
Ticket indicates it was bought from "E.Gans Oct.1959" and also states "SNG
von Aulock 654 (THIS)" (*I haven't been able to check v.A. just yet).

I would be interested in hearing whether anyone else knows of these items,
knows anything about them, or knows of any associated references that I
may have missed or overlooked.

Walter Holt
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on December 12, 2010, 11:33:13 am
I have come across a couple of what appear to be new types to add to the corpus.

1. (http://www.oldmoney.com.au/110185a.jpg)
Bithynia, Nicaea, Marcus Aurelius 161-180 Æ35
Obv: Bare-headed, half-length figure of Marcus Aurelius wearing cuirass
and paludamentum right.
Rev: Pan standing left, wearing conical cap, holding branch and wine-skin.
(25.65g) Not in standard references (that I could find).
Same obverse die as RPC online 5913 (Rec.Gen. 138, pl.LXX,5).
Same reverse die as RPC online 5507 (Rec.Gen. 157, pl.LXX,22).
Traces of reverse legend: ΕΠ ΩΦΕΑΝΝ-OY / ΝΙΚΑΙΕΙΣ in ex.

2. (http://www.oldmoney.com.au/110186a.jpg)
Bithynia, Nicaea, Severus Alexander 222-235 Æ27
Obv: Laureate, draped and cuirassed bust of Alexander right.
Rev: Dionysus in panther biga right.
(9.80g) Not in Rec.Gen.; Not in BMC; Not in SNG Cop.; Not in SNG Schweiz II;
Not in SNG Hunterian. Unpublished?

3. (http://www.oldmoney.com.au/110187a.jpg)
Bithynia, Nicaea, Gordian III 238-244 Æ32
Obv: Radiate, draped, and cuirassed bust of Gordian left, as seen from the
front, holding spear and shield which is decorated with an aegis (head of
Medusa), two countermarks.
Rev: Nike standing on right crowning a seated Tyche who turns to face her.
(20.05g) Not in any of the references I have to hand. Same obverse die as
Rec.Gen. 710; Gorny & Mosch 114/171; Helios 5/631; and CNG E233/281.
Ticket indicates it was bought from "E.Gans Oct.1959" and also states "SNG
von Aulock 654 (THIS)" (*I haven't been able to check v.A. just yet).

Walter Holt

Thanks for posting these three coins; #2 really isn't in Isegrim, and ##1 and 3 are almost as noteworthy for other reasons.  A few followup notes:

1) Here is Isegrim's closest entry for your #1, very rare, with a different obverse portrait:

PRO: BITHYNIA
PO : NICAEA
PZ : Between 161 and 180 
BNG: WP'E ANN..OY
 Obverse
VSG: ..
VT : PORTRAIT MAN R / MARC AUREL
VA : WREATH LAUREL / BEARD / CLOTHES
 Reverse
RSG: EP WP'E ANN..OY
RT : MAN WALKING L(1) / PAN(1)
RA : NUDE / HORNS / BRANCH(1) / WINE-SKIN(1)
 Technical details
M  : AE
GR : 41(1)
 Bibliographical references
ZIT: WADD RG S419,157(1) / COLL BERLIN(1) [ http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3026.html / http://people.virginia.edu/~jdk3t/RG/RG1-3185.html, diff. obv. die as noted; better img. of RG rev. below]
FR : VS: .. RS: EP WP'E ANN..OY 

2) An extremely uncommon reverse for Nicaea, although found on this issue of Commodus:
PRO: BITHYNIA
PO : NICAEA
PZ : Between 177 and 192 
 Obverse
VSG: M AY KOM ANTWNINOS
VT : PORTRAIT MAN R / COMMODUS
VA : WREATH LAUREL
 Reverse
RSG: NIKAIE..
RT : BIGA PANTHERS R / WITH / CHARIOTEER(1) / DIONYSOS
RA : KANTHAROS(1)
 Technical details
M  : AE
GR : 27.94(1) / 29(1-2)
 Bibliographical references
ZIT: WADD RG S433,270(1-2) / BMC 11 S159,44(1)
VGL: COLL WIEN(2)
 Additional remarks
FR : VS: <M AY?> KOM ANTWNINOS RS: NIKAIE.. 

3) Very likely your coin (perhaps your very specimen when it comes to the von Aulock entry), although badly described in this listing:
PRO: BITHYNIA
PO : NICAEA
PZ : Between 238 and 244 
 Obverse
VSG: M ANT GORDIANOS AYG
VT : PORTRAIT MAN L / GORDIAN III
VA : RADIATE / CLOTHES / SPEAR / SHIELD
VG : ROUND / LET I / ROUND / HEAD MAN ? / EMPEROR
 Reverse
RSG: NIKAIEWN
RT : PERSONS 2 / WOMAN SITTING L(1) / TYCHE(1) / ON / STOOL <?> / MAN STANDING HL(2) / DIONYSOS(2)
RA : HEAD R(1) / STAFF(1) / TURRETED(1) / CORNUCOPIAE(1) / WREATH(2) / THYRSOS(2)
 Technical details
M  : AE
GEW: 20.09(1)
 Bibliographical references
ZIT: SNG AUL 654(1) [another specimen FONTANA RIN 1966 S41,15(1)]
 Additional remarks
FR : VS: M ANT GORDIANOS AYG RS: NIKAIEWN 
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: KIR on March 29, 2011, 03:09:09 pm
Dear All

Nicaea, Bithynia, Plautilla 6.0g 22mm
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Kurt E on May 07, 2011, 09:54:20 am
I have a couple of additions to the thread for types that have been listed here. 

The first is Caracalla with Serapis on the reverse  This appears to be the same obverse die as reply 107 and 109, but paired with a third reverse die.  5.05 g  22 mm

OBV - M AVPH ANTWNINOC AVG - laureate head right
REV- NIKAIEWN - Serapis advancing right, right had raised holding long scepter over left shoulder

The second is Caracalla again.  This time with garlanded lit alter reverse.  The obverse is a small youthful, laureated head right which is different than the others posted. 2.57 g  17 mm

OBV- AVT K M AVP ANTWN[ ]  Youthful, laureate head right
REV- NIKAIEWN - garlanded lit alter
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on June 16, 2011, 11:36:20 am
 
Caracalla laur. hd. r., [ANT]WNINOS AYG / Theseus beardless hd. in lionskin r., NIKAIEWN, AE16, 2.32 g., apparently unpublished; cf.  RPC temp. 6026 (http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/6026/, 2nd picture below), AE17, Commodus / Theseus beardless hd. in lionskin r., T'HSEA NIKAIEIS, interesting for how Theseus here is depicted as a lionskin-sporting kid-Herakles:
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Tom Mullally on July 04, 2011, 05:33:54 pm
I just won this coin from a well respected German dealer.  He says it's Philip I, but I think it is most likely his son, Philip II.  The portrait appears un-bearded and youthful, traits which Philip senior would not have had.

it is 5.43 grams and AE 23.  The reverse type is a plow within a wreath.  

The coin does not appear to be listed in any references I've been able to check (Rec Gen, SNG VA, SNG Cop, BMC, Weiser, Righetti, Leypold, L&K, Lind III, ISEGRIM).

I want to clean it up a bit when it arrives, I'm sure I can get the legends to appear more clearly.  I'll post follow up pics when it arrives.

Tom
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Pscipio on July 20, 2011, 06:51:21 am
Here's a Commodus bronze from Nikaia that I recently acquired for my collection. It is worn and has a large cut on the obverse, but it is a very rare type:

Commodus AE16, 177-192 AD, Nikaia, Bithynia.
Obv: ΑV K ΚΟΜΟΔΟC ΑΝΤΩΝINOC, laureate head right.
Rev: ΘΗCΕΑ ΝΙΚΑΙΕΙC, youthful head of Theseus right, wearing lion's scalp.
16 mm, 3.48 g
RPC online 6026 (2 specimens: Paris and Florence), Rec. Gén. p. 433, 274

While it was perfectly normal for a polis to honor different myths, Nikaia is unusual in putting no less than five ktistai and heroes on coins: Dionysos, Asklepios, Alexander, Herakles and Theseus. I had not seen a Theseus before, apart from the Paris specimen that is pictured in Waddington and on RPC online. The specimen shown for Caracalla by archivum above reads just NIKAIEΩN (cf. Lanz 128 (2006), 580, same dies) and I would identify the head as Herakles with his normal attributes. Theseus needed a a clarification, Herakles didn't - and he doesn't have one in the Antonine period, either.

Lars

PS: click to zoom
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on July 22, 2011, 02:02:31 pm
 
Thanks, Lars; I'd still say that the young, slight kid-Herakles treatment of the lionskin-wearer on the otherwise-unpublished #203 (above and Lanz listing, RG -- and Weiser --, below) aligns him with the Theseus of your coin and RPC 6026.  After all, RPC 6026 surely counts as a local recent precedent.

http://www.acsearch.info/record.html?id=84878
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Pscipio on July 22, 2011, 03:53:31 pm
The lion's skin is a regular attribute of Herakles, were it not for the explicit legend on the Antonine type, we wouldn't would call the bust there Theseus, either. At Nikaia, too, Herakles clearly got associated with the lion's skin (as everywhere in the Graeco-Roman world), as many of his types show, f.e. http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/5990/ Also, there are coins from the same period or slightly earlier than the Commodus, showing a lion's skinned head which again no one would call Theseus, I believe ( http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/5907/ - http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/9902/). So I think it is safer to assume that when the mint decided to honor Theseus, they adapted the usual Herakles image rather than to assume that at Nikaia (and just there) all heads with lion's skin are to portray Theseus.

Lars
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Jochen on August 02, 2011, 06:06:18 pm
Unlisted Geta from Nikaia?

Geta as Caesar, AD 198-209
AE 16, 2.43g, 15.5mm
obv. [GETAC] - KAICAR
        Bare head r.
rev. NIK - AIE[WN]
       Satyr riding on panther r., holding in r. hand branch(?)
ref. not in Rec.Gen., BMC, SNG Copenhagen, von Aulock

Found in www.muenzzentrum.de, Lagerliste no.273
 
Best regards
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Tom Mullally on August 02, 2011, 09:46:45 pm
Unlisted, but not unique.  M&M sold one a few years ago.  Their description for the reverse is "Young Dionysos riding panther right, holding thyrsos and kantharos".  I think it's a match to yours.

Tom
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: curtislclay on August 02, 2011, 10:25:09 pm
Looks like the same rev. die, different obv. die.

A neat type on such a small coin!
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: areich on August 03, 2011, 06:18:42 am
The detail on the M&M coin is amazing. Nicely engraved as well.
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on August 04, 2011, 01:19:40 pm

ANS has a specimen of this type (reverse shown); I do, too, and will post mine eventually ...

http://numismatics.org/collection/2003.26.3
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Tom Mullally on August 18, 2011, 05:47:13 pm
I just won this one today.  Maximinus Thrax from Nicaea with Asklepios reverse, AE 25.  I cannot find this reverse type listed in any reference.  It does appear to me that the rev legend has been tooled, the edges look too sharp and the omega is a blundered W.  The tooling may be modern, although I think the legend may have originally been Nicaea.  Thoughts?

Tom
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: curtislclay on August 20, 2011, 02:28:08 pm
I see no trace of tooling.
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Tom Mullally on August 20, 2011, 03:04:06 pm
That's good to hear, but how do you explain the omega?  I can't recall seeing one that looks like that.

Tom
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: slokind on August 20, 2011, 05:18:41 pm
The W shaped omega is only beginning to become current at this time.  In Ms majuscule, they have begun using a large sort of the miniscule omega, especially when they were doing very angular letters.  But I think I've seen it also a bit earlier.  Pat L.
Better drawings both monumental and Mss somewhere in old Britannica: here's the gist of it.
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Tom Mullally on August 20, 2011, 05:22:58 pm
Thanks for the clarification.

Tom
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Tom Mullally on August 20, 2011, 07:01:31 pm
FWIW, I just spent the past hour looking thru my Nicaean photofile (almost 1100 coins).  There is a grand total of TWO coins with the W type omega, the coin shown above and one other from Maximianus as well.  So it seems to be quite an oddity at Nicaea.  I'd love to see other examples of the W type omega.

Thanks,
Tom
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: OldMoney on August 21, 2011, 11:21:25 am
Not from Nikaia, but here is a coin from Ephesus which shows not only the
lower-case or lunate Omega, but it is shown in tandem with the upper-case
Omega in the ethnic.

(http://www.walterholt.com/102069x.jpg)

The reverse legend is:
ωΙΚЄCΙΑ ΑΝΔ-ΡΟΚΛΟC / ЄΦЄCΙΩΝ

Walter Holt
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Jochen on September 07, 2011, 07:57:17 am
Another "Young Dionysos riding on panther r., holding kantharos and thyrsos", found recently in a lot of small coins in bad shape. I could attribute the coin because of the discussion we have had above.

Jochen
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: curtislclay on September 07, 2011, 11:28:19 am
Not from Nikaia, but here is a coin from Ephesus which shows not only the
lower-case or lunate Omega, but it is shown in tandem with the upper-case
Omega in the ethnic.
The reverse legend is:
ωΙΚЄCΙΑ ΑΝΔ-ΡΟΚΛΟC / ЄΦЄCΙΩΝ

What does WIKECIA mean? Seems odd with W not O as first letter. The closest thing I can find in Historia Numorum is Hercules as OIKICTAC, founder, on coins of Croton.
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Jochen on September 07, 2011, 12:37:00 pm
Could the mysterious W actually be a reversed E? Then it would be EIKESIA, a term which appears in Plato's Cave Allegory, meaning 'imagining, simulating'. Don't ask for the sense!

Jochen
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: OldMoney on September 08, 2011, 11:41:57 am
Not from Nikaia, but here is a coin from Ephesus which shows not only the
lower-case or lunate Omega, but it is shown in tandem with the upper-case
Omega in the ethnic.
The reverse legend is:
ωΙΚЄCΙΑ ΑΝΔ-ΡΟΚΛΟC / ЄΦЄCΙΩΝ

What does WIKECIA mean? Seems odd with W not O as first letter. The closest thing
I can find in Historia Numorum is Hercules as OIKICTAC, founder, on coins of Croton.

Hello Curtis,
The precise Greek is beyond my expertise, but my understanding is that it is a variation
of 'Oikistas or "founder" as you proposed, especially as it is in connection with Androkles,
the mythical founder of Ephesus. The appearance of the lower-case Omega is known on
other coins of this city (see RPC I, coins of eg: Augustus). I recall, without authority, that
there are several other examples from this time that also have the lower-case Omega.

Walter
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Tom Mullally on September 14, 2011, 03:49:01 pm
First, I apologize for the poor picture.  I have tried to photograph it several times and it has defied my every attempt.  The coin has a high gloss patina to it reflecting the light where I need it the most!

Maximus  AE 24 (9.43 gm)

Obv: Bare-headed and draped bust right
Rev: Female figure standing, legs crossed head right, leaning on column, holding rod and cornucopia.

It is possible that the rod is actually a rudder, but every time I look at the coin in different angles and under different light, I think I see something different.  I think that part of the field is smooth with a few scratches.  Also, the head is not turreted, so I don't think it's Tyche or a city goddess.

It looks very similar to the Providentia types from the Imperial mints.  I don't see a globe at her feet, but it certainly could be there.  What is the Greek version of Providentia?  I cannot find this reverse type, especially with a column, in any reference.

Any help would be most appreciated, especially in identifying the reverse figure.

Thanks,
Tom Mullally
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Kurt E on September 14, 2011, 09:48:33 pm
Here is a nice Marcus Aurelius from Nicaea which I recently acquired that is not listed n RecGen or other sources I have consulted.

18 mm  4.08 g

OBV- M AVPHLION . KAI  [ANNEIOV]  - the legend in the brackets I'm not 100% sure on except for the A and the OV
       Bare Head right

REV- EPIF TELE NIKAIEIC
        Telesphorus standing facing in hooded cloak

RecGen -
SNG VA -
RPC online -

cf RecGen 96 (Pius) - this is the same reverse and same reverse legend but for Pius instead.  The scans of the plates aren't good enough to tell if it is a reverse die match.

Does anyone know how the right side of the legend is supposed to read or to what it is referring?  I couldn't find any similar legends for Marcus Aurelius.   It is quite a nice coin.  Better than my photo unfortunately

Kurt
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: curtislclay on September 14, 2011, 09:58:27 pm
"The Nicaeans (honored, or raised a statue to, or beheld?) Telesphorus made manifest".

Judging from my reprint of Rec. Gén., I'm fairly confident that your coin shares its rev. die with their no. 96, pl. 69.3 of Antoninus Pius.
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Tom Mullally on September 15, 2011, 11:57:19 am
I've been able to take a much better picture of the Providentia coin I posted yesterday.  Opinions?

Tom
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Kurt E on September 15, 2011, 12:23:45 pm
"The Nicaeans (honored, or raised a statue to, or beheld?) Telesphorus made manifest".

Judging from my reprint of Rec. Gén., I'm fairly confident that your coin shares its rev. die with their no. 96, pl. 69.3 of Antoninus Pius.

Thanks Curtis!  I thought it may be a die match.  I was wondering if you or someone else may know what the second half of the obverse legend (after KAI) is or should read.  ANNEIOV is the best I can make out, but it AMMEIOV or ANHEIOV are possibilities.  The A and the OV are the only two things I'm sure of.  Is this a magistrate or referring to a diety?  I have not found similar legends.

Kurt
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Kurt E on September 23, 2011, 06:19:53 pm


Thanks Curtis!  I thought it may be a die match.  I was wondering if you or someone else may know what the second half of the obverse legend (after KAI) is or should read.  ANNEIOV is the best I can make out, but it AMMEIOV or ANHEIOV are possibilities.  The A and the OV are the only two things I'm sure of.  Is this a magistrate or referring to a diety?  I have not found similar legends.

Kurt
[/quote]

This is kind of a bump.  Any other thoughts on the terminal portion of the obverse legend?  I have looked at a lot of coins for Marcus Aurelius from Nicaea and this is the only coin I have found which appears to have the same obverse legend.  Unfortunately, the needed portion is obscured by corrosion on this specimen except for the terminal OV.  Any suggegestions would be appreciated.

http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/9433/

Kurt
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on September 30, 2011, 10:20:24 am
Looks like ANNEIOY to me too; that's a pretty odd way of concluding a legend, but MA's father actually was Annius.
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Kurt E on October 04, 2011, 04:34:33 pm
Thanks Archivum for the information.  At least that is a possible plausible interpretation/ explanation for the legend.  I will leave it as possible until I can find a specimen with a more visible legend.

Thanks Again!

Kurt
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Pekka K on February 22, 2012, 05:59:03 am
New obverse legend for not so scarce type
of Severus Alexander:

 :Greek_Mu:  :Greek_Alpha: :Greek_Upsilon_2: :Greek_Rho:  :GreeK_Sigma: :Greek_epsilon: :Greek_Omicron: :Greek_Upsilon_2: :Greek_Iota: :Greek_Rho:  :Greek_Alpha: :Greek_Lambda: :Greek_epsilon: :Greek_Xi: ...

Pekka K

edit: having seen some other similar legends, this should be read
SEOVHP, (HP) in ligature.
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Kurt E on April 30, 2012, 09:49:55 pm
Here is an apparently new type for Caracalla.  14 mm  1.95 g

OBV: ANTWNINOC AVG - youthful laureate head right

REV: NIKAIEWN - Bearded head of Hercules right

RG - , SNG vA - , Lindgren -, Righetti -, Isegrim -

This coin is unusual in that it's depiction of the older Hercules.  The only other similar coin was this issue of Caracalla with the bust of young Hercules in lionskin headdress in line with those issued by the Antoinines discussed previously.

http://www.acsearch.info/record.html?id=84878

Kurt
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Tom Mullally on August 04, 2012, 12:15:06 am
A new variation recently sold by VAuctions (to me).

BITHYNIA, Nicaea, Commodus. A.D. 177-192. AE 21 (6.13 g, 21.2 mm).

M AV KOM ANTWNINOC, laureate head right
NIKA-IEWN, Athena standing left, holding spear and resting hand on shield set on ground

Rec Gen 265 var (Athena right). Unpublished in major references
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Tom Mullally on December 07, 2012, 01:40:01 pm
Here's an extreme rarity I picked up at that online caveat emptor auction site:

Valerian II
Obv:  P [L KO]R OUALERIANOC K, radiate and draped bust right (I cannot tell if it's also cuirassed or not)
Rev: NIK/AIE/W-N, three standards topped with wreathes
3.16 g, 18.06 mm

Rec Gen (p. 510, #866) has a similar coin described as:

Saloninus (?) or Valerian II

Obv: P L KOR OUALERIANOC, radiate and draped bust right
Rev: NIKAIEWN, legionary eagle between two standards
AE 17 (Rec Gen does not list the legend breaks, but the plate coin has the same breaks)

The differences between my coin and the Rec Gen listing are the extra K at the end of the obverse legend and the wreathed variation of the reverse standards.  

There is one other known Valerian II type from Nicaea, with Hipparchus seated reverse (SNG von Aulock 7097), picture attached, which uses the same obverse legend as on my coin.  Rec Gen says "Saloninus (?) or Valerian II" but I think we can now safely say that the two "three standard" reverse types must come from Valerian Jr as well, and we can safely say (for now) that there are no known coins of Saloninus from Nicaea.

I know it's just another boring three standards type to most of you, but I'm tickled pink! If anyone knows of other Saloninus or Valerian II coins from Nicaea please post them.  Also, if anyone has a photo of the Rec Gen specimen (RG 866) I would love to see it too...the plate coin photo isn't great in my copy.

Tom
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Tom Mullally on December 07, 2012, 01:47:40 pm
I should also add that none of these three coins showed up in a search of ISEGRIM, even though two are listed in the major references (Rec Gen and SNG vA).  Perhaps I am not searching using the right parameters?  Also, using the same search parameters, there were no coins of Saloninus at Nicaea listed.

Tom
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Kurt E on February 28, 2013, 12:42:15 am
Here is a new variation for Geta.   15 mm 2.77 g

OBV- L CEPTI GETAC KAI - Barehead and cuirassed bust right

REV- NIKAIEWN - Telesphorus standing facing in hooded cloak

cf. RecGen 511 - barehead right with a different obverse legend

Kurt
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: helvetica on March 28, 2013, 05:43:26 pm
I just wanted to make a note here of a correction to SNG Rightetti and an Isegrim entry:
Isegrim 709 (Nicaea, Julia Domna) lists an entry with the reverse of an eagle on an altar between two standards and repeats the obverse legend given in SNG Righetti, no. 638 as
IOYLIA DOMNA
The obverse legend is however IOYLIA DOMNA CE

there is a round countermark on the right of the Righetti plate coin with one
edge of the countermark after the A of Domna, but, on the plate coin, part
of the C (of CE) is visible.
I have just received an image from arizonarobin of such a coin in her collection and it appears to have been struck from the same dies, but without the countermark.
I am enclosing a pic of the plate coin from Righetti where you can see part of the C of CE just above the countermark.

Robin's example is also added and will soon be on wildwinds.
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: arizonarobin on May 06, 2013, 07:05:22 pm
I have two that are "scacer finds" from Nikaia, Bithynia that I did not see in this thread yet:

1.
Julia Domna
Ae15mm;2.12g; Bithynia, Nicaea.

IOVLIA CEBACTH
draped bust right

NIK-AI-EWN
Concordia standing left, holding patera and cornucopiae

2.
Julia Domna
Ae 23mm; 8.9g; Bithynia, Nicaea

IOVLIA AVG OVCT
draped bust left

NIKA-I-EWN
three standars, eagle with wreath on center standard
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Jochen on June 13, 2013, 12:10:52 pm
Hi!

Today I came across this coin:

Bithynia, Nikaia, Severus Alexander, AD 222-235
AE 24, 9.81g
obv. [M AVR CEVH] - ALEZANDROC AV[G]
        laureate head r.
rev. EV / CEBWN / EVGENWN / NIKAIE / WN (2nd WN ligate)
       Legend in 5 lines in laurel wreath
ref. Rec. Gen. 621 var.

Rec. Gen. 621 has bust cuirassed, laureate, r. So this is a new variant. A rare and interesting rev. legend!

Best regards
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Kurt E on July 07, 2013, 10:11:17 pm
Hello Everyone,

      This appears to be a completely new type for the small module coins of Nicaea and for Caracalla.

1.37 g  12 mm

OBV: ANTW-NEINOC - Laureate head right

REV: NIKA-IEWN - Herma with bearded bust right.

Anyone else seen anything similar in such a small module?  There are a couple of larger module issues with a snake entwined torch with or without poppies, but nothing this small.

Kurt

EDIT:  Given ionutdb coin below - the reverse appears to be a herma with a bearded bust right, not a flaming torch.
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Kurt E on July 11, 2013, 10:26:39 pm
Here is a sharper example of the coin listed in reply #158.  Definitely a reverse die match, and probably an obverse die match.

Severus Alexander - 22 mm  4.71 g

OBV - M AVP CEV ALEZANDROC AV - Laurete head right, Z appears retrograde under magnification

REV - NIKA-IEWN - Serpent entwined, lit torch

Kurt
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: ionutbd on July 17, 2013, 04:59:30 am
So, as Mr. Jochen advised me, I post here a interesting coin of Nikaia, Bythinia:

Unknown emperor (I guess is Antoninvs Pivs) - reverse: bust/statue of emperor (?)

12 mm diameter
0,67 gr weight

I hope you like it.
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Kurt E on July 17, 2013, 02:00:43 pm
Very interesting!  Seeing your coin, I think mine above (reply 241) is the same issue except the bust is facing right.

Kurt
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Jochen on July 17, 2013, 03:24:45 pm
I don't think that this is a flaming torch, but it looks like a herma.

Best regards
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Kurt E on July 17, 2013, 05:46:30 pm
I agree Jochen.  I thought the top of mine look a little unusual for a flame.  Now seeing ionutbd's coin, I see the bust on my coin, but facing right.

Kurt 
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: ionutbd on July 18, 2013, 01:52:05 am
Hello!
I am glad that my little coin make a little „light” (althou is not a torch) :)
So, it appears to be Caracalla - two variants of reverse: herma bust left and herma bust right :)
Best regards!
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: arizonarobin on November 19, 2013, 04:55:33 pm
Adding my Julia Mamaea, that goes with Kurt's above:
 Julia Mamaea, Nicaea
Ae 20mm; 5.2g
Nicaea, Bithynia

IOVLIA MAMAIA AVG
draped bust right

NIKA-IEWN
snake entwined torch
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Kurt E on April 24, 2014, 08:23:37 pm
Here is another example of the Mamaea.  22 mm 5.31 g

Kurt
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Jochen on May 13, 2014, 03:12:35 pm
I think that this coin is Marcus Aurelius from Nikaia. I couldn't find it at Rec. Gen.

Bithynia, Nikaia, Marcus Aurelius as Caesar, AD 139-161
AE 25, 7.14g
obv. AVRHLIOC - [.....]
       Bust, draped, bare-headed, r.
rev. NIKA(I) - EWN
       Artemis in hunting cloak, wearing boots, stg.r., holding in r. arm long torch and in  
       extended l. hand bow; at her feet r. the hound std. r.
ref. ???

Best regards
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Pekka K on May 14, 2014, 02:17:01 am

Looks like Perinthus coin: http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/8661/

Pekka K
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Jochen on May 14, 2014, 03:57:18 am
Yes, I think you are right. Thanks

Jochen
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: OldMoney on November 24, 2014, 09:24:10 pm
I have an interesting Macrinus from Nicaea for which I would
like to find an obverse die match. I have searched a number
of sources, getting close but without success.

It also has a slight variant on the reverse, assuming that the
one sold at CNG a few years ago should be considered the
'norm' or known (ie: Waddington RG 547).

(http://walterholt.com/sagariss.jpg)
(enlarged here: http://walterholt.com/sagarislg.jpg)

c.28mm; 11.59g; axis 1h.

Obv: ΑΥΤ Κ Μ ΟΠΕΛ CΕΟΥΗΡ ΜΑΚΡΕΙΝΟC ΑΥΓ;
(some letters are a little obscured, so this may not be exact)

Rev: NIKAIEΩN, CAΓAPIC in exergue.
The river-god reclines as usual, but instead of his head facing to
the right, as on the other specimens, this one faces left. Instead
of holding a reed, this figure holds a boat, a feature that is also
known on some coins of Caracalla (eg: Lanz 114/506; RG 462).

Here are the two Macrinus pieces together for comparison:
(http://walterholt.com/sagarix.jpg)
As may be seen, the obverse die of the CNG specimen is close,
but not an exact match. I would be curious to find any matches.

Walter Holt

*NB: Images courtesy of the respective dealers - with thanks.
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Kurt E on November 28, 2014, 11:07:03 pm
Hello everyone,
    This is a small coin of Marcus Aurelius which may be a new variant,

15 mm 3.33 g

OBV- AVPH KAICA - Barehead, bearded bust right

REV- N-IKA-IEWN - Coiling snake with head erect right

RecGen 128 -is Aurelius as this coin, but different legend and snake, 172 is as Augustus with a similar type snake, but different bust and legend.

Isegrim list an example from the Mclean collection as Caesar, but I don't have access to this.

Kurt
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: gordian_guy on November 29, 2014, 10:12:04 am


I am curious, is there another McClean collection not covered by Grose? It is in the Fitzwilliam Museum. I tried searching both Fitzwilliam and the SNG database and I looked in Grose but did not find a coin to match your type.

c.rhodes
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Mark Fox on November 29, 2014, 11:42:54 am
Dear Kurt, Charley, and Board,

Attached is the catalog reference for the McClean coin, plus the poor-quality plate taken from two different sources.  Definitely a different piece, although this variety wasn't found on RPC IV Online.  I am wondering if the RPC editors thought the youthful looking head belonged to a different emperor.

Edit:  Sorry, there were a couple of strange problems with my cropped plate images, so I finally decided to redo everything and attach whole pages instead. 


Best regards,

Mark Fox
Michigan  
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: gordian_guy on November 29, 2014, 08:20:53 pm


Thanks Mark, I must have fat fingered the page, because hey there are some Commodus coins also, but certainly the plate coin is clearly different.

Thanks

c.rhodes
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Pekka K on December 23, 2014, 02:13:59 pm
Possibly Caracalla obverse with infant Dionysos reverse
listed in RG for Domna.
Ex Peus auct. 403 lot 617 27 April 2011 (one of 7 coins).
16.6 - 17.3 mm, 2.96g.

Pekka K
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Tom Mullally on December 23, 2014, 05:26:22 pm
I agree that it's probably Caracalla, although the legend is a bit difficult to read.  I have examples of this reverse type in my photofile of Sept Sev, J Domna, and Geta.  So it stands to reason that Caracalla would have struck this type as well.  I also have a Marcus Aurelius of this type, but he's not Severan.

Tom
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Pekka K on December 27, 2014, 08:55:11 am
It took some while to decipher the obverse legend.

 :reversedN: :Greek_Tau: (  :Greek_Omicron: :Greek_Nu: )  :Greek_epsilon: :Greek_Iota: :Greek_Nu: :Greek_Omicron: C  :Greek_Alpha: :Greek_Upsilon_2:

The reversed N may be read as AN ligature?

Pekka K
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Pekka K on November 16, 2015, 05:31:39 am

Shared obverse die with 2 different reverses:

Pekka K
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Kurt E on January 01, 2016, 06:05:38 pm
Here is a new type for Septimius Severus.

3.09g   17 mm

OBV: CEY[HPOC] AYGOY - Laureate head right

REV: NIK[AIEWN] - Griffon Seated right with foot resting on wheel

Type apparently rare and only attested for Antoninus Pius and Commodus in RecGen/Lindgren I

Kurt
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Vladimir P on January 22, 2016, 01:05:05 pm
Hello! Let me show my Dionysos on panther.
The obverse is not so good, but Infant is very nice I think
2.22 gr, 15 mm, 6h

(http://s42.radikal.ru/i097/1601/91/fd53f3771cf7.jpg) (http://radikal.ru/big/92dfade836b54cf589d2c98b0cdd66ff)
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Tom Mullally on January 22, 2016, 02:32:54 pm
I believe Vladimir's coin is of Geta.

Tom
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Jochen on January 23, 2016, 01:15:27 pm
A new type for Nikaia:

Bithynia, Nikaia, Septimius Severus, AD 193-211
AE 22, 8.66g, 22.2mm, 345°
obv. [...] - CEVHROC
          laureate head r.
rev. NIKAIEWN
       Tetrastayle temple with 3 figurs within; crescent in pediment
ref.: ???
Agora Auctions sale 49, Lot 49-070

Agora Coins write: The statue on the right appears to be leaning on a serpent-staff, so Aesklepios is presumed. The other two are lacking in identifying details. The medical trio of Aesklepios, Hygeia, and Telephorus is one possibility. Unpublished in standard references.

But it is really Nikaia?

Best regards
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Tom Mullally on January 23, 2016, 05:45:10 pm
I can't be 100% certain that it's Nicaea, but the existing legend does lean that way.  What other city could it be?  The IKAEWN is fairly clear.

Tom
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Vladimir P on January 24, 2016, 12:17:43 am

But it is really Nikaia?

Best regards

It's looks like Carrhae coin. Like this:
http://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=2379191
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Tom Mullally on January 24, 2016, 12:21:42 am
I do believe you are correct!  Thank you, I will update the listing now.

Tom
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Pekka K on February 13, 2016, 03:23:06 am

Severus Alexander as Caesar under Elagabalus.

Bare bust draped and cuirassed seen from rear.

 :Greek_Mu:  :Greek_Alpha: :Greek_Upsilon_2: :Greek_Rho:  :Greek_Alpha: :Greek_Lambda: :Greek_epsilon: :Greek_Zeta: :Greek_Alpha: :Greek_Nu: :Greek_Delta: :Greek_Rho: :Greek_Omicron: :GreeK_Sigma:  :Greek_Kappa: :Greek_Alpha: :Greek_Iota:

3 standards.  :Greek_Nu: :Greek_Iota:   :Greek_Kappa: :Greek_Alpha:   :Greek_Iota: :Greek_epsilon:  :Greek_Omega: :Greek_Nu: ( WN ligate)

Same dies as Wildwinds RecGen580v

Pekka K
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Robert H7 on October 26, 2016, 11:34:05 am
This one is rare I believe - I have not seen another

Bronze. ANTWNINOC - AUGOUCTOC. Laureate and armored bust right. Rs: NIKAIEW / N. Galley with steersman in back and rowers passing over waves to the left, in the stern sits Caracalla with bowl and scepter, Serapis standing at bow with raised right hand and scepter.. BMC 74 and Plate XXXIII, 5 (Rs same dies) = RG II, pp. 458, 469 AE 30mm, 11.84 g Very rare. Green-brown patina, very fine.   Ex Lanz 2005, ex M&M
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on November 18, 2016, 01:07:40 pm
Thanks for posting; remarkable coin! Isegrim lists just the one specimen of this type, the one in RG (= Plate LXXIX, 13); oddly Isegrim calls the bow figure Asklepios not Serapis, though the Serapis-attributes are even clearer on the RG example than on yours.
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Jochen on November 18, 2016, 02:42:51 pm
Hi Robert!

Your coin belongs to a series of coins from Nikaia which always show the emperor in a galley where he is welcomed by one of the local deities of Nikaia. I have a similar coin from Caracalla with the City Tyche holding the infant Dionysos: https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-22260

Struck probably on occasion of  an actual or desired visit of the emperor in 214/15 when he crossed Asia Minor on his way to the campaign against the Parthians (Curtis Clay).

Best regards
Jochen
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Akropolis on November 18, 2016, 04:36:17 pm
Great coins!
PeteB
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on November 25, 2016, 08:43:12 am
More examples with discussion on an earlier thread (starting with Reply #6):

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=35585.msg225657#msg225657
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Pekka K on November 18, 2018, 10:44:25 am
Numbers 999 & 1000 of Nikaian 3- standards coin of Severus Alexander
on my picture gallery.

Pekka K

edit: 640 of different variety.
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Jochen on February 15, 2019, 10:17:29 am
Not unique but still without reference:

Bithynia, Nikaia, Caracalla, AD 197-218
AE 15, 2.09g, 15.47mm, 0°
obv. ANTWNINOC AVGOVC (NINO between rays of crown)
       Bust, draped and cuirassed, radiate, r.
rev. CEOVHREIA - NIKAIEWN (HR ligate)
        Prize basket with palm branch
ref. not in Mionnet, Rec. Gen., Weiser, SNG von Aulock, SNG Copenhagen, BMC, Imhoof, Jürgling
very rare, about SS

This type is listed in F+ at asiaminorcoins.com http://www.asiaminorcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=12724

Best regards
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: quadrans on February 16, 2019, 07:15:10 am
 Two Bithynia, Nikaia, Maximus and Severus Alexander,

Bithynia, Nikaia, 067 Maximus (235-238 A.D.), Howgego 65, AE-19, Ν ΙΚ ΑΙ Ε /ΩN, Between and beneath three standards,
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-153317
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-153318

(https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/albums/userpics/31252/normal_067_Maximus_%28235-238_A_D_%29%2C_AE-19%2C_Nikaia_in_Bithynia%2C__%23915%3B_IOV_OVH_MAXIMOC_K%2C__%23925%3B__%23921%3B_%23922%3B__%23913%3B_%23921%3B__%23917%3B__%23937%3BN%2C_Howgego_65%2C_Q-001%2C_1h%2C_18%2C5mm%2C_3%2C67g-s.jpg)

Bithynia, Nikaia, 062 Severus Alexander (222-235 A.D.), BMC ???, AE-21, NI K AI E/ΩN, #1
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-153319
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-153320

(https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/albums/userpics/31252/normal_062_Severus_Alexander_%28222-235_A_D_%29%2C_AE-21%2C_Nikaia_in_Bithynia%2C__%23925%3B_%23921%3B__%23922%3B__%23913%3B_%23921%3B__%23917%3B__%23937%3BN%2C_Q-001%2C_0h%2C_20-21mm%2C_5%2C38g-s~0.jpg)


Regards

Q.
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: mauseus on February 16, 2019, 10:57:54 am
Hi,

I have just read this thread and realise I too have one of the "unpublished" AE15 of Geta with Dionysos riding the panther right. It looks to be an obverse and reverse die duplicate of the M&M specimen posted by Tom Mullally and the second specimen posted by Jochen, both on page 9. There do seem to be a number of these out there.

Regards,

Mauseus
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Pekka K on June 14, 2021, 05:20:45 am
Interesting Severus Alexander 3 standards type. Double struck
reverse with RPC VI, 10931 (temporary)

Pekka K
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Tom Mullally on June 14, 2021, 10:40:41 am
Interesting head on the reverse.
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: Pekka K on June 14, 2021, 10:59:00 am

Other reverse looks this:

(nb. same obverse die)

Pekka K
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: quadrans on June 19, 2021, 03:58:21 pm
Nice find  +++

Joe/Q.
Title: Re: Nicaean Addenda: Scarcer Finds from Nikaia, Bithynia
Post by: archivum on June 23, 2021, 01:45:45 pm
These are interesting entanglements of the deity-issues with the commoner standards-issues from Nicaea, for which see esp. the link posted at the very beginning of this thread, https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=44576.0