Could be put in a poll but too many options.

[the10thlegion]

When looking at Roman coins I try and identify the emperor by his portrait before reading who it is. I'm fairly good at most of the common ones.

My question to anyone who cares to share, which emperor has the most varied portraits on Roman coins? (not provincial as they often don't look like the emperor).

I'll start off by saying I think Constantine the Great has so many different portraits it's often hard to tell him by just his image.  Several different shapes of noses, chins, over all heads.

John

Added examples (all taken from wildwinds) - all supposed to be Constantine but all different.

[OldMoney]

Practice makes perfect! I find that viewing a *LOT* of coins assists with familiarity.

Most portraits of rulers from, say, Julius Caesar until around the time of Carus are
generally readily recognisable without assistance of the legends. There are a few
exceptions, of course, but that is my own humble experience (plus it probably took
several years to get to that point).

From the later 3rd century onward there are a series of fairly generic or standard
portraits that, again with some exceptions, were fairly similar to each of the other
portraits from the same times. The Tetrarchs, Constantinian, and so on.

The portrait seemed to matter less than the representation and what it stood for.

As far as those with the greatest variety - I'd go for one of the rulers who began
as a youth, and lived for a sufficiently long time for these changes to be recorded
and then depicted: eg. Nero, Marcus Aurelius, Caracalla; others?

Good question. Food for thought.

Walter Holt

[the10thlegion]

As far as those with the greatest variety - I'd go for one of the rulers who began
as a youth, and lived for a sufficiently long time for these changes to be recorded
and then depicted: eg. Nero, Marcus Aurelius, Caracalla; others?

Walter Holt

I hadn't thought of the aging process but that's a good point.

Especially when the youth started growing facial hair. Commodus is another example of changes over the years.

[dougsmit]

There are too many variables to make this a fair question.  Constantine's variability is partly due to his using several mints and covering many years.  Who shows the most variability from one mint in one year?  I am amazed at several you might not have considered.  Below are coins of Septimius Severus all from Rome and all 193 AD.  I recognize them all as Septimius but none are the common faces we think of when we consider the entire reign.  Forvm allows five but I could show several more.  I believe the cause of this is that Septimius is what is familiar to me so I am more aware of his variations.  Specialists in many other faces would probably do the same for their special person.  Obviously some of this is made worse by the coins being from the early period when the mint was less familiar with the new ruler.