Humans are fortunate enough to share our world with a fellow beast. They enhance the natural beauty of our plant and even the most ferocious among them illustrate nature with its refined and primal grace. Many artists had tried to capture this creation of nature with the brush or chisel but yet few come near to copy their perfection. Every aspect of human creation is his art which is inspired by its surroundings, so it shouldn’t surprise us that the coins would depict these beautiful animals. This finest artistic representation is animals on Roman coins, this coinage covers a wide variety of fauna, the embellishment of these beasts on these coins are unique in its own way.

One of the most studied and collected coinages of world Roman coinage offers one of the most beautiful illustrations of animals on coins. Roman culture had a deep connection with the animals, they were fascinated with the wild animals. One of the strange facts of the colossus was it was used as a cross between a circus and a zoo.

In the above-shown image depicts silver denarii which illustrate Owl at the both of the Dioscuri. The owl is the companion of Minerva, the goddess of wisdom and strategies. Romans believed that the presence of a hooting owl on the roof brings the news of death. It was the embellishment of knowledge and intelligence.

Image Courtesy: AmricanNumimatic.org