Hi!
I have just completed my little quest for
Hadrian denarii with Globe in exe! When I occasionally got the first one with
Victory I was immediately fascinated with the concept of spherical globe/earth/universe that was known in ancient times, -so I decided to put my
hands on the entire series.
During my quest I got across two interesting ones :
a. VENERIS FELICIS/Venus with
Cupid ( this variant with globe is not in
RIC, and even
Curtis did not mentioned it above... though there are couple on
acsearch and one in BM...so it seems to be a
rare one). Also, it is
COS III PP on ob- it seems to be the only
type with Globe from
COS III PP on ob. issue.
b. Crescent and
Star - It happened so that I got across the variant with PP on
obverse, which is much rarer than the common one without PP on
obverse. This coin was already discussed earlier.
My impression of the entire series in
hands was that all of them are very different in terms of silver
quality, styles and ob legends. If not the globe, nothing would unite them. However there is a time frame behind those 6 coins:
AD 125 - 128
HADRIANVS
AVGVSTVS There was some kind of launch of the concept in AD 125 -128, when all seated divinities of that issue were given a globe under throne - 4
types (
Victory, Pudicitia,
Roma,
Annona), along with Crescent/Star
type, which could be the flagship of this series given its planetary topic.
AD 128-135
HADRIANVS
AVGVSTVS PP
Crescent/Star
type was evidenced with the point and globe (as my variant), as well as
Victory according to
RIC. So, these variants could appear in transition from the earlier period, as
Curtis suggested. It cannot be excluded that other seated divinities will be found with globe as well.
AD 134-138
HADRIANVS
AVG COS III PP
VENERIS FELICIS (N5 on my photo) - this is the most puzzling for me - have a look at
Hadrian on
obverse - he looks like Pius - is not it odd? why the globe appeared after 6-9 years after the main series? Could this be minted by Pius after
Hadrian death to commemorate something?
Please do not judge the
quality of coins - it is self-explanatory - the
auction houses were out of my reach, and I
had to skip many descent-looking ones....so it took 2 years.
PS. Im
still missing
Roma left with Globe - but it is really
rare - it can take years until I get across it within affordable
price range...though I know that
Eric got it -
good for him:)
Thank you for your time.
Z