Ancient coin shows Cleopatra as plain

LONDON (AP) -- So maybe Mark Antony loved Cleopatra for her mind.
That is the conclusion being drawn by academics at Britain's University of Newcastle from a Roman denarius coin which depicts the celebrated queen of Egypt as a sharp-nosed, thin-lipped woman with a protruding chin.
She's a fair match for the hook-nosed, thick-necked Mark Antony on the other side of the coin, which went on public display Wednesday at the university's Shefton Museum.
The notion that Cleopatra was not a great beauty was hailed as a revelation in British newspapers on Valentine's Day, hardly a discovery. Images on other ancient coins are no more flattering.
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