Jugate Carausius and Sol

I’ve been doing a study of this jugate Sol “series” and I now think that Curtis Clay is correct in suggesting that the Hunter specimen is the one illustrated in Stukeley’s plates as I can find no reference to any other examples pairing this obverse type with this reverse legend (excepting my own example, of course).

I now have images of eleven of the twelve examples of the jugate Sol coins known to me and it is apparent that this is more than a single issue when looking at the spread of mint marks (C, CXXI and S/P//C) and the corpus is represented by four distinct obverse dies.

Five of the coins are in the British Museum (one of which, BM 1992,0635.1, must be mis-catalogued on the basis of the die links now known to me; another of the British Museum coins, BM1863,0325.4, is clearly the same specimen as the one illustrated, but not owned, by Kennedy in his “Dissertation upon Oriuna”, from 1751 ), two in the Hunter collection in Glasgow, five in private hands. I need to check the Cambridge and Oxford collections (sadly the Heberden Coin Room is undergoing a reorganisation and so is not dealing with enquiries at present) to see if they hold any further specimens.

Carausius, Stukeley and RIC 5

William Stukeley was perhaps one of the earliest scholars who studied the coins of Carausius, along with Claude Genebrier, John Kennedy and Richard Gough.

The have been criticisms, sometimes valid, over the scholarship of the age, the debate over the status of the personality identified as "Oriuna" not helping put any of the protagonists in a good light.

A biographer of Stukeley wrote in 1985 that "there is little to his credit in the voluminous books of notes and drafts of Histories of Carausius that he so laboriously compiled in the later years of his life".

It is sad that when compiling the appropriate volume of Roman Imperial Coinage (the second part of volume 5 in 1933) that more attention were not paid to the plates of Stukeley from his Medallic History of Marcus Aurelius Carausius, 1757-9 (that were largely copied from Genebrier?) as some rare coins that are known today to exist make an appearence in his plates that are missing from the 1933 catalogue.

One such coin is this one from my own collection that is also illustrated as plate VII, coin 1 in the Medallic History:

Carausius 287-93AD

Antoninianus

Obv “IMP CARAVSIVS PF AVG”

Radiate bust in imperial mantle left jugate with Sol

Rev “PAX AVGVSTI”

Pax walking left holding branch and sceptre

Camulodunum mint

-/-//CXXI

RIC - (cf 341)

Sadly the idealised nature of the plates in Stukeley's work makes it impossible to know if my specimen is the one cited by Stukeley.

However, digging a little deeper what we probably have is an error on the part of Webb, the compiler of the Roman Imperial Coinage volume, and I'll explain why.

RIC 341 describes the above coin except that it says the portrait of the emperor and Sol face RIGHT, not left. He cites his own 1908 publication on the coins of Carausius and, in particular, coin 398 and again the portrait description is right. He also quotes the collection where his particular coin resides, the Hunter Collection, Glasgow University. Fortunately the Hunter collection is published (although the particular coin in question, Hunter 110, is not illustrated). We are fortunate though in that a similar coin, but with a different reverse, Hunter 109, is noted as being an obverse die duplicate of 110 and that coin is illustrated and shows the portraits to the LEFT.

It looks as though we can clear up a descriptive error in Roman Imperial Coinage with a little detective work.

Poemenius

I recently came across this coin that was languishing in a junk box of sorts. I realised straight away that it was a coin of the “rebel” Poemenius, struck in the name of Constantius II. Poemenius, you ask, who’s that?

References are scant and the only extant literary reference for Poemenius is Ammianus 15.6.4: “...Poemenius was condemned as a malefactor, hailed to execution and perished; he was the man (as we have told above) who was chosen to protect his fellow-citizens when Trier closed its gates against Decentius Caesar”. Sadly the writings of Ammianus prior to 353 are lost and we can only wonder what else could be learned if that part of the text remained.

At the time of the civil war between Constantius II and the western usurper Magnentius, the imperial administration was based at Trier. However, the real centre of military power was on the frontier at Cologne and Mainz, leaving the former relatively undefended in the case of attack. By spring, 352 the Trier region was suffering attacks from Germans who had been prompted by Constantius to attack his rival’s centre of power. Poemenius, for whatever reason the most important man left inside the walls of the city, during the resistance to the barbarians had seemingly declared for Constantius – prompting Magnentius’ brother, Decentius, to besiege the town. The rare series of hybrid coins honouring Constantius on the obverse and using the chi-rho type of Magnentius on the reverse were all struck in Trier and are therefore presumed to be a product of Poemenius’ counter-rebellion. The fate of Poemenius is known and Ammianus notes that he was executed after his stand against Magnentius. The period of the revolt was brief, probably lasting a little over one month in the middle of 353.

My example of this scarce issue has been cut down, removing most of the obverse and reverse legends. It has been done in such a way as to preserve the religious symbol, the chi-rho, on the reverse and may have been to mount the coin as a religious pendant.

Although the legends have been largely removed it is possible to identify the portrait as being that of Constantius, rather than Magnentius or Decentius as there is a diadem, only present on the coins of Constantius.

My sad world.........

Welcome to my sad world!!!!!!

Whilst I was in Filey I happened to notice my first 2009 coin in circulation on Saturday 15th August; a penny.

Bronze age archaeology in action

Ferriby boat replica puts to sea with Filey Brigg in the background where a late Roman signal station was located

I was at Filey this weekend on the east coast of Yorkshire. There were a series of events to raise money for the RNLI and Filey lifeboat and one of these events included putting to sea a half size replica of one of the Bronze Age "Ferriby Boats".

The Ferriby boat replica, cutting edge Bronze Age technology, with the Filey lifeboat behind, cutting edge modern technology

The Ferriby Boats are three sewn plank-built boats, parts of which were discovered at in the East Riding of the county of Yorkshire. Only a small number of boats of a similar period have been found in Britain and the Ferriby examples are the earliest known boats to be found in Europe. The crew said she was good in the water but a little heavy to manoeuvre.

For more information on the Bronze Age boats go to http://www.ferribyboats.co.uk/

Edward Jekyll - a bookplate traced

I bought the two volumes of the "Coin Collectors Manual", 1853, by Humphreys years ago when I was just beginning to develop an interest in numismatic literature. Looking at the price paid, £20 in 1990, it was probably too much.

Inside each one there is a name inscribed in black ink plus a bookplate with the name Edward Jekyll. Curiously this is the name of the doctor in Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 book "The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde" - but more of that later.

I searched Edward Jekyll on the internet and came up with such a name related to Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932). She an influential British garden designer, writer, and artist who created over 400 in the UK, Europe and the USA.

Then I came upon a link to an excellent family history website about the Archers, the Goodmans and Associated Families who included the Jekylls. On the page of Jekylls, including Gertrude Jekyll, is reproduced the crest from the bookplate - I had been fortunate enough to track down the right family.

So which Edward Jekyll is it? I'm not sure. It must be either Captain Edward Joseph Hill Jekyll (6 Feb 1804 - 26 Mar 1876) of the Grenadier Guards, father of Gertrude, or his son Captain Edward Joseph Jekyll (18 Aug 1839 - 3 Mar 1921) of the 64th foot, and therefore Getrude's brother. Looking at the membership of the Royal Numismatic Society does not help narrow this search down as the name does not appear to be present on any of the membership lists sadly.

So where is the connection to the horror story? Well Edward jr. and Gertrude had a younger brother, Rev Walter Jekyll, who was a friend of Stevenson and who borrowed the family name for the main character in the book.

What's so bad about firemen?

In book 10 of Pliny's letters, that is the volume that charts the correspondence between him (as a special imperial delegate in Bithynia) and the emperor Trajan, there is a rather intriguing exchange.

In letter 33 Pliny informs the emperor of a serious fire that broke out in Nicomedia that detroyed many houses plus two public buildings, the Elder Citizens Club and the Temple of Isis. He suggests that he might form a company of firement, numbering about 150 or so also noting that any privileges granted would be monitored and not abused.

Trajan's reply is very suspicious, saying that although is it a reasonable idea it is groups or societies like those that have been responsible for political unrest within the province. "If people assemble for a common purpose, whatever name we give them and for whatever reason, they soon turn into a political club. It is a better policy then to provide the equipment necessary for dealing with fires, and to instruct property owners to make use of it, calling on the help of the crowds which collect if they find it necessary."