| Author |
 Replies: 19 / Views: 2,396 |
|
New Member
United States
27 Posts |
I was wondering if anyone other than myself has ever put together a series of coins based on age progression and if so who were the subjects. On modern coins the obvious subject of course is Queen Victoria. Having become Queen of the British Empire as a teenager and living into her eighties there are many coins, most of which are quite inexpensive, with portraits of her at many stages of her life. An even better subject however, is Alfonso XIII of Spain. He was born King. There are portraits of him on coins as an infant (beginning around 1888), then as a toddler, a boy, a young man, etc. I am putting together a nice group of coins with some very nice age progression portraits of Marcus Aurelius. His portrait first shows up as Caeser on the denarii of Antonius Pius when he is about 18 or 19 years. His oldest portraits are on the consecratio issues of his son Commodus. He died at about 60 years old. During his own reign coins are easy to date by using the abbreviations on them for his Consulship (COS DES to COS III) and his Tribunician Power (TRP I to TRP XXXIIII). I have coins with great portraits issued in 141 AD, 147 AD, (I'm very found of these youthful, unbearded portraits), 165 AD and a Consecratio issue of 180 AD that was once part of the Bavarian Collection. I would like to add to these an issue of around 156 AD that would show him with his new beard. Anyone have any ideas as to who else would be a good subject for these kinds of portraits, ancient, modern or anywhere in between?
|
|
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
2596 Posts |
the portraits on canadian coins are the same way.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
2044 Posts |
Let's see some images of those Roman coins you're talking about.
|
|
Moderator
 Australia
16870 Posts |
Very few kings and emperors ruled for long enough to see them visibly age on their coins.
Add to this is the general lack of "realism" on ancient coin portraiture. Apart from a relatively narrow window around 50-100 AD, Roman portraits tended to be idealistic versions of how the emperors wished to portray themselves, rather than actual photo-realistic images. Even for some of the more realistic portraits (such as Trajan), they seemed to have issued just one or two official portraits at the start of his reign, and used that throughout.
Much of the "aging" seen on Roman coins is synthetic. Between Hadrian and Constantine, the beard became kind of a badge of seniority; caesars were almost always beardless, while the senior emperor was usually bearded. Once the tradition started, many emperors who did not usually sport a beard were portrayed bearded anyway.
On the other extreme, emperors and caesars who were in fact infants when they first appeared on coinage were usually portrayed as being older, teens or tweens. I guess there was no point advertising to all the world that the reins of Empire were in the hands of a child.
In the medieval series, the quality of artwork was hopelessly inadequate to show things as subtle as aging. In English coinage, for example, you don't see age reflected in coinage until the reign of George III (who was notoriously displeased with how his portrait appeared on coinage, hence the constant changes in that series). The only exception in earlier times might be Henry VIII, whose later coins have a distinctly chubbier appearance.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
|
|
New Member
 United States
27 Posts |
I have to disagree with you when you say that "apart from a relatively narrow window from around 50-100 AD there is a general lack of realism on ancient coin portraiture." There appears to be honest portraits of most emperors for a far greater time period than you suggest, although surprisingly so. The consistency of the likeness of emperors on coins as well as there similarities to the sculptures of them done in marble suggest that this was how they actually appeared. In many cases I have seen so many portraits of these emperors on coins that I think I could even recognise some of them if I saw them on the street. I also don't believe them to be "idealistic versions of how they wish to be portrayed" How would you explain the meanness in the look of Caracalla who killed his own younger brother Geta rather than share the thrown with him or the effeminate look of Elagabalus who is portrait as youthful as he was and with full lips, large eyes and a round fleshy face. These and many other examples support the idea that the portaits on ancient Roman coins are indeed photo-realistic. You are also wrong when you say that between Hadrian and Constantine Caesars were almost always beardless. Both Lucius Verus and Aelius both had beards as Caesar and the ones that did not was because they were too young to have them. If they were portrayed with beards it is only because they had beards. It certainly does not seem they were trying to hide anyone's age as you suggest.
|
|
New Member
United States
27 Posts |
The one thing I do agree with Sap on is when you say that very few kings and emperors ruled long enough to see them visibly age on coins and many reigned in an era where the quality of the artwork on coins wasn't adequate enough to show aging. This is why I asked if anyone had any ideas on who else might be a good subject for age progression portraits in the first place. To Gil-galad I would like to say that although I have been an avid collector for a long time I never really learned to photograph coins. It is something I hope to learn to do in the near future. Perhaps some of the people on this site can help me with that.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
1549 Posts |
Caracalla works for this. My image here was made for another purpose and does not have the youngest style but you get the idea. Caracalla did not live to an old age but there are a lot of variations in the boyhood years.  |
|
New Member
United States
27 Posts |
Well done Dougsmit. I believe Caracalla's reign lasted about 20 years. Long enough to see an age progression. I like the antoninianus at the end. The denomination was first introduced by him close to the end of his reign about 214 or 215 AD
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
2044 Posts |
As far as taking photographs. Scanners work well and so does a good webcam, either way as a low cost solution. Of course you won't get all these high end features.
In a scanner is very simple, for the most part.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
4132 Posts |
Quote:
Much of the "aging" seen on Roman coins is synthetic. Between Hadrian and Constantine, the beard became kind of a badge of seniority; caesars were almost always beardless, while the senior emperor was usually bearded. Once the tradition started, many emperors who did not usually sport a beard were portrayed bearded anyway. Hatshepset, as pharaoh of Egypt, wore a beard even though she was a woman.  |
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
4253 Posts |
Quote:
Hatshepset, as pharaoh of Egypt, wore a beard even though she was a woman I'll bet SHE was a real knockout.  |
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
2044 Posts |
Was that only on the coins or in real life? lol
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
2703 Posts |
I have a pretty good run of portraits for these rulers over their lifetimes:
Charles XI of Sweden
Louis XIV of France
Louis XV of France
Victoria of Great Britain
|
|
Bedrock of the Community
United States
10045 Posts |
The aging of Caracalla on coins is very interesting--glad I saw that!  |
|
Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
2838 Posts |
I've taken home a few Cleopatras in my time only to wake up with Hatshepsets  Funny how beer goggles can do that  Edited by bobbyhelmet
01/22/2012 10:57 pm
|
|
Bedrock of the Community
United States
10045 Posts |
 At least you didn't end up with coins on your eyes. |
| |
Replies: 19 / Views: 2,396 |
Posted 01/22/2012 6:23 pm
