RPC IV.4, 1730

 

Image of specimen #4

 

Coin type
Volume IV.4
Number 1730
Province Egypt
Region Egypt
City Alexandria
Reign Antoninus Pius
Person (obv.) Antoninus Pius (Augustus)
Issue Year ΙΗ = 18
Dating AD 154/5
Obverse inscription ΑΥΤ Κ Τ ΑΙ(Λ) ΑΔΡ(Ι) ΑΝΤωΝΙΝΟϹ ϹΕΒ (ΕΥϹ)
Edition Αὐτ(οκράτωρ) Κ(αῖσαρ) Τ(ίτος) Αἴλ(ιος) Ἄδρι(ανὸς) Ἀντωνῖνος Σεβ(αστὸς) Εὐσ(εβής)
Translation Emperor Caesar Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Augustus Pius
Obverse design laureate head of Antoninus Pius with traces of drapery, right
Reverse inscription L ΙΗ
Edition (ἔτους) ιηʹ
Translation of year 18
Reverse design Tyche-Euthenia standing, facing, head, left, holding ears of corn and rudder; to left, forepart of sailing ship; below which, Thalassa (the Sea) reclining; to right, stern of ship, below which, Nilus reclining, crowned with lotus, holding rudder
Metal copper-based alloy
Average diameter 33 mm
Average weight 24.69 g
Axis 12
Reference D 2900, pl. XXIV (rev.), DS 8774–5
Specimens 6 (1 in the core collections)
Note This complex scene was introduced on the AE 33 of Antoninus Pius year 18 and repeated with variations in Marcus Aurelius year 5. The variations under Marcus led Dattari to describe the main figure in two different ways but the scene is clearly intended to be the same. The principal standing female figure has variously been described as Euthenia (by Dattari for Marcus), Isis Euploia (by Milne), Tyche (by Dattari for Pius), or Tyche-Euthenia (by Geissen). The figure does not have the characteristic basileion headdress of Isis. Euthenia, for whom ears of corn and a cornucopia are indeed appropriate, does not elsewhere hold a rudder, although Annona on imperial coins may. All three attributes (corn, rudder, and cornucopia) may belong to a city Tyche elsewhere and may be associated with Tyche at Alexandria itself (https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/type/22498). So the principal female figure on our type may well be the Tyche of Alexandria (as LIMC I.1, p. 494 (79)) but might also be Euthenia. She is here described as Tyche-Euthenia following Geissen (also Bakhoum 1999, pp. 113-14). Two figures recline at her feet: a female who may hold a rudder or a dolphin, attributes of Thalassa, may be identified as the Sea (as Vogt 1924, pp. 129-30), and a bearded male, who may be crowned with lotus and hold a rudder or reed, is clearly Nilus.

Specimens of this coin type

Number Number Museum Bibliography
1 1     B: Löbb.
2 2     A: D 1965H(?) / 225/767
3 3     Aiello
4 4     ✸ D 2900 = Künker 124, 16 Mar. 2007, lot 8178 = Kölner Münzkabinett 66 (1997), 573 (Figari - Mosconi 721)
5 5     DS 8775 = Naville Numismatics 40, 27 May 2018, lot 402
6 6     Gilles Blançon 31 (1999–2000), 1334