RPC III, 3971

 

Image of specimen #1

 

Coin type
Volume III
Number 3971
Province Judaea
Region Judaea
City Aelia Capitolina
Reign Hadrian
Person (obv.) Hadrian (Augustus)
Obverse inscription [ ] MA
Obverse design bare head of Hadrian (?), right (seen from rear)
Reverse inscription CO[L] [A]E CA
Reverse design club
Metal copper-based alloy
Average diameter 10 mm
Reference Meshorer 6
Specimens 1 (0 in the core collections)
Note On p. 24, Meshorer referred to the coin as a unique piece; he said that the obverse inscription is illegible, and regarded its attribution to Hadrian rather than Antoninus Pius as conjectural (not in RPC IV online). The club, the only occurrence of the design on the coinage of Aelia, was regarded by Meshorer as referring to Hercules, although he did not explain its choice and Hercules does not otherwise appear at Aelia. However, the reverse inscription does look like CO[ ] – [ ]E(?) C A, so it could well be a coin of Aelia. The obv. inscription looks like Μ Α to the r. of the bust (rather than H A, for Hadrian), and there is a letter or letters to the l. If correctly read, the letters suggest a later emperor (Pius has IMP AN on his very small coins: Meshorer 15), and the obv. portrait does not look much like Hadrian

Specimens of this coin type

Number Number Museum Bibliography
1 1     ✸ Meshorer 6 = IMJ 89.009.13255