Elephant Species

Indian

African Forest Elephant

African elephants or Loxodonta cyclotis in nature

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From Charles, Michael B. “AFRICAN FOREST ELEPHANTS AND TURRETS IN THE ANCIENT WORLD.” Phoenix 62, no. 3/4 (2008): 338-62. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25651736.

For numismatists these differences only make sense when they are exceptionally clearly rendered.  So the Hispano-Punic coins: e.g. ANS 1944.100.81012 and Siculo-Punic coins: e.g. ANS 1997.9.225 all have the concave back and seem most decidedly African.  But many other elephants aren’t rendered with the same care as to make the distinction meaningful.

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