Children, Parents & Even Grandmothers on Ancient Roman Coins

In looking over the current Tom Cederlind catalog a few interesting items jumped out at me. Though young rulers, babies and mothers and often times wives of Emperors were depicted on various Roman coins over time, I don't every recall seeing a Grandmother on an ancient coin. Of course, I am not really too well versed in Ancients, but I do always look over the ancient sections of the many auction catalogs which land on my desk weekly and I don't remember any Grandmothers, but here in this Cederlind offering is a bronze coin featuring Julia Maesa, grandmother to Elagabalus and Severus Alexander. This coin is flanked by select coins of her two grandson's making for excellent representation from their time period ranging from 218 to 235 A.D.

After a bit more page turning I stumbled across another unusual Roman type from Domitian, which features his infant son seated on a globe. Cederlinds lot description tells the tale of Domitian and his wife Domitia, whose son died in infancy. During his rule from 81 to 96 A.D. Agustus Domitian had this silver Denarius struck to honor the memory of their son, who seems happy in Heaven. On the reverse of this type, the boy sits atop a globe, surrounded by stars, with the legend roughly reading " the son of the Emperor Domitian is now in the Heavens." It's an outstanding piece and quite rare.

Aside from the fine selection of ancient Roman coins this buy or bid sale closing October 1st also contains an unusual array of Byzantine coinage as well as a good grouping of Medieval English coins. Two standouts include a Kingdom of Wessex silver penny from Edward the Elder, sharply struck and well preserved and a classic bronze follis of Nicephorus I which could easily have been the basis for a string of modern imitative fantasy copper coins from St Hildegard.