Hi all,
At last, I can participate here instead of bothering esnible in private! \o/
I've done a little
bit more of research too, I couldn't let you all do all the
work. It's not easy because I know nothing in
numismatics, so I don't even know what I'm looking for, plus the languages are a problem. I'll ask you to excuse me if this post is very long and irrelevant.
So, if I understand correctly from Num. Chron. and
ANS, the coin with the alleged "genet", possibly "mouse", is a silver 1/2
drachm (also called triobolo ?) weighting approx. 1,71 g
ANS says:
Obverse Type silphium fruit with genet lying on it
Reverse Type Zeus Ammon hd. r. within
incuse square
Num. Chron. says:
Obverse : Genet reclining over silphium fruit.
Reverse :
Incuse square, containing bearded
head of
Zeus Ammon or of negro
I'm not in the US, so I can't see the scans of
Google books. The small previews that I can see, from the Num. Chron. p. 109 says:
The
Numismatic Chronicle - Page 109
by Royal Numismatic Society (Great
Britain) - 1966
... for the moment, to play a relatively subordinate
part in the coinage. CYRENE.
36. ... , genet (genetta) crouching 1., with
head lowered;
border of dots. ...
p.109
crouching L., wirh
head lowered ;
border of dots.
Rev.-
Head of bearded
Zeus Ammon r. horned ;
incuseand p.110
(op.cit., p. 3) to see in it a weasel, citing the curious statement of Herodotus (iv. 192), as to the connection of the silphium and the weasel in
Libya : - greek words
There is also another book:
Catalogue of the
Greek Coins of
Cyrenaica - Page xxxii
by British Museum. Dept. of Coins and Medals - 1965 - 154 pages
The genet may be the ... and her
lion.3 The
dolphin appears to have been one of
the early badges of Cyrene,4 possibly brought from Thera, ...
and from the same book:
Polonius, that "it is backed like a weasel," but according to Imhoof-Blumer and
Keller, whose
identification seems much better founded, the animal is the pale genet (genetta) of Northern
Africa (.. die in der Berberei gewöhnt...)
----
I know how difficult it must be to recognise so little details on coins, but doesn't all the above seem to indicate that the animal is looking like a "weasel", arching is back (crouching)?
I don't think a mouse, or a jerboa (small "rabbit-like" creature) can do that at all. Maybe the guy with the mouse coin was speaking about a coin with a jerboa?
I'm telling that because I've found a few interesting websites about
Cyrenaica coinage... in
Italian. On one of the pages, there is the picture of a large
cup or plate, with people and
animals. It's here:
[DEAD LINK REMOVED BY ADMIN]
from the page [DEAD LINK REMOVED BY ADMIN]
I have attached 2 details of this plate. There are two
animals here, and they are not mice or jerboa.
To be a
bit more general about
Cyrenaica coinage, maybe the people of this
forum will be interested, for updating the
Numiswiki, in watching a few pages I found (in
italian) ?
I don't know what "kind" of publications/books/studies you need to have, how official or authorized they have to be, etc., but you'll know better than I, I am sure! I
hope these pages will be worth reading anyway, if you don't know them already.
A. the
Italian Archaeological Mission in Cirene. (Missione Archeologica in Cirenaica Università "G.D'Annunzio" - Chieti)
Their website has 3 pages about coinage, plus a starting page. As they are in
Italian, I've added a direct (I
hope) link to the Babelfish translations. (xxT. URLs)
A1.[DEAD LINK REMOVED BY ADMIN]
(with pictures of coins, no text, 3 links to the following pages)
A2T. [DEAD LINK REMOVED BY ADMIN]
(about the greek period coinage in English)
Original page A2. [DEAD LINK REMOVED BY ADMIN](greek period coinage)
A3T. [DEAD LINK REMOVED BY ADMIN]
(about the
roman period coinage in English)
Original page A3.[DEAD LINK REMOVED BY ADMIN]
(
roman period coinage)
A4T.
[DEAD LINK REMOVED BY ADMIN]
(hellenistic period coinage in English)
A4. [DEAD LINK REMOVED BY ADMIN]
(hellenistic period coinage)
On each page, there are pictures of coins, some of them you can click to enlarge, and descriptions.
There is also a page about the silphium (silfio in
Italian), this is the page with the cup/plate.
A4t. English translation:
[DEAD LINK REMOVED BY ADMIN]
Original page A4. [DEAD LINK REMOVED BY ADMIN]
----
Then there is a coins seller page (I think)
B. roth37.it
starting here:
http://www.roth37.it/COINS/Silphium/index.htmlB1.
http://www.roth37.it/COINS/Silphium/abstract.html (with a
part in English)
B2. [DEAD LINK REMOVED BY ADMIN]
Original page B2.
http://www.roth37.it/COINS/Silphium/storia.html(
history and description of silphium)
B3. [DEAD LINK REMOVED BY ADMIN]
(a page describing the coinage apparently using Müller, 1860, with several drawings and pictures, which can't be enlarged)
Original page B3. translation:
http://www.roth37.it/COINS/Silphium/monetazione.html----
Anyway, this doesn't give us (me) the picture of the coin, maybe it's in one of the pages above, but I absolutely cannot recognise it :-)
Sorry again for the length of this post, and thank you!