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Author Topic: Strange object at the back of SOL  (Read 461 times)

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Offline Odoacer

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Strange object at the back of SOL
« on: January 03, 2022, 01:41:03 pm »
Dear members,

ANy opinion about this strange object at the back of Sol on a coin of Aurelian. Is it a quiver? Never seen this before. This is RIC 64 Rome.

Thank you!
Best regards Jeroen

Offline Jochen

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Re: Strange object at the back of SOL
« Reply #1 on: January 03, 2022, 02:23:25 pm »
When he holds a bow then he needs a quiver too.

Jochen

Offline wolfgang336

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Re: Strange object at the back of SOL
« Reply #2 on: January 03, 2022, 02:50:07 pm »
I can't say that I've seen a quiver shaped like a mushroom before. It almost looks like a sword pommel.

Offline Odoacer

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Re: Strange object at the back of SOL
« Reply #3 on: January 04, 2022, 01:41:47 am »
Thank you, this is quite a common coin and i have found 5 other exemples in the archives (about 1 out of 20), they are all mushroom shaped, but no one had described this object

Offline Ron C2

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Re: Strange object at the back of SOL
« Reply #4 on: January 04, 2022, 03:46:13 pm »
I had always assumed it was an oversized fibula for the cloak he's wearing over that shoulder...?
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Offline SC

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Re: Strange object at the back of SOL
« Reply #5 on: January 04, 2022, 08:12:35 pm »
The item is very unlikely to be a sword pommel.  Swords were worn on the back in fantasy novels, but not in the Roman period when they were worn at the hip on a waist belt or at the side between hip and shoulder slung on a shoulder baldric, which always had a strap that passed diagonal over the chest.

Every other fibula that I have seen on a bust is set lower, on the shoulder part.  Plus this is comparatively huge.  And it looks like no fibula.

Though it looks odd I suspect it is bow-related.  Top of a quiver - though shape is weird.  Fletched end of a bundle of arrows in a quiver?  Perhaps the end of a bow case?

SC

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Offline Blindado

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Re: Strange object at the back of SOL
« Reply #6 on: January 08, 2022, 08:25:18 pm »
He's a wind-up Sol.

Offline Ron C2

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Re: Strange object at the back of SOL
« Reply #7 on: January 08, 2022, 10:36:40 pm »
I gathered a few more images of RIC 64 for comparison. 








I basically found no other examples with quite as pronounced a shoulder artifact.  In most cases, above the shoulder on the left side of the reverse, you see a protrusion of the cloak or the hint of a fibula

My guess is it's not meant to be anything other than perhaps a poorly executed part of the cloak garment.  If you look at the other end of the cloak on OP's coin, there is another (slightly smaller) object, similar in shape, so I'm guessing a decorative cloak feature marking either end of the garment.
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