ARTIC-EG
Art Institute of Chicago (Egyptian) · other
Coin Portraying Emperor Antoninus Pius
Description
Canopus, a port city in the Nile Delta, was famous for an ancient sanctuary dedicated to Osiris, god of vegetation and rebirth. His worship included a procession of his priests carrying jars filled with Nile water, the symbol of fertility. The jars, as depicted on this coin, were topped with the head of Osiris, here shown in profile, with an elaborate headdress. Emperor Antoninus Pius, who issued the coin, never set foot in Egypt, but he used this imagery to honor one of Egypt’s ancient traditions. The date this coin was struck is indicated in the back inscription " B ", which means the second year of the emperor's reign, or 138-139 CE. Antoninus Pius reigned as emperor from 138-161 CE.
AI image analysis GPT-5.4-nano
Machine-generated from the object's image on Jul 2026. Not curatorial; treat deities, names, and signs below as the model's best reading, not authority.
Two views of a small ancient coin showing a right-facing male portrait on one side and a heavily worn emblem/inscription-like mark on the reverse.
The image presents a paired, close-up view of a coin (obverse on the left, reverse on the right) against a neutral gray background. The left side shows the profile of a bearded male head facing right; the facial features are worn but the presence of a head/diadem and hair/beard contour are visible. The right side shows a central vertical emblem-like device with surrounding marks; there are also several characters/numerals in the outer field that are too worn to reliably read. There is no clearly legible Egyptian hieroglyphic, Greek, Coptic, or Arabic text visible in the provided resolution; the markings on the reverse appear inscription-like but cannot be confidently transcribed. No cartouches are visible. No explicit deity iconography can be confirmed. The coin’s metal surface is silvery/gray and consistent with the catalogue’s stated material (billon), though the image quality limits fine compositional verification.
royal
Roman Imperial (2nd century CE), consistent with Antoninus Pius; exact date uncertain due to wear
poor
Royals
Antoninus Pius (catalogue title; not clearly readable in image)
Materials
billon (silvery/gray metal surface appearance)
Inscriptions (1)
Inscription #1
English description
Obverse: [AVT K T AIΛ AΔΡ ANTΩNINOC EV CEB] Reverse: ETO-VC B
Connections
Deities
Osiris
Cross-references (1)
- ARTIC-id 62850 tier-2
Similar inscriptions · by content embedding
About this record's data
- From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Art Institute of Chicago (Egyptian).
- AI-inferred — the image-analysis panel (deities, names, signs) is machine-generated and may be wrong.
- Approximate location — most map points are plotted at the site centroid, not the exact findspot.
- Inferred links — cross-references marked with a match method other than explicit-source-field were matched by us, not stated by the source.