As a non-native speaker I won't have much to contribute on the "
corn"
side, but I'll tackle this:
I noticed the term "cornucopiae" popped up in a description of a Nero sestertius.
Borrowing from Wikipedia, cornucopiae is a genus of grass in the Poaceae family.
In
Roman terms, the
cornucopia (you'll notice a link to
numiswiki showing up automatically on this term) is a "horn of
plenty", from the latin "
cornu" meaning "horn",
cf. French "corne", and "
copia", meaning "multitude", "
plenty", etc.
cf. english "copious". No relation to "
corn", whether wheat, maize, rye or any other vegetable food. From the
Online Etymology Dictionary: s.v.
corn.
"grain," O.E.
corn, from P.Gmc. *kurnam "small seed" (
cf. O.Fris., O.S. korn "grain," M.Du. coren,
Ger. Korn, O.N. korn, Goth. kaurn), from PIE base *gre-no- "grain" (
cf. O.C.S. zruno "grain," L. granum "seed," Lith. žirnis "pea"). The sense of the O.E. word was "grain with the seed
still in" (e.g. barleycorn) rather than a particular
plant. Locally understood to denote the leading crop of a district. Restricted to
corn on the cob in America (c.1600, originally Indian
corn, but the adjective was dropped), usually wheat in
England, oats in Scotland and
Ireland, while korn means "rye" in parts of
Germany. Maize was introduced to
China by 1550, it thrived where rice did not grow well and was a significant factor in the 18th century population boom there. Cornflakes first recorded 1907. Corned beef so called for the "corns" or
grains of salt with which it is preserved; from verb
corn "to salt" (1560s).
So, what
Annona is holding on this coin is the horn of the mythical
goat Amalthea, which nurtured
Zeus after he was hid as an infant so
his daddy would not eat him.