Hey gang! Can I get a hand on this one? I can usually figure these out when I can make out most of the legend... I'm having trouble with this guy. Thanks in advance!
Hi Matt Claudius II Potin Tetradrachm of Alexandria. Year 2 = 269 AD. AVT K KLA-VDIOC CEB, laureate cuirassed bust right / L-B, eagle standing left, head right, with wreath in its beak. Check here at almost the bottom of the page Milne 4248 http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/ric/claudius_II/i.html
What makes you say that? Its perfectly genuine. LostDutchman - what was your process when you tried to ID this? Describe it to us!
Well I know from the style that this is an Alexandria mint piece. I'm still trying to learn the emperors by portrait... I've got some of the common ones down. I then jump to the legend... when I can read it. If I don't know who it is I either search wildwinds or ask here.
Matt I had no clue what it was until I went to wildwinds. The search I ran was "VD O" because I wasn't sure of the "I". It didn't give me the exact coin but one that was similar (diff. regnal year) and then went to the emperor list of that coin and there it was. Took me about 15 minutes. Richard
Portrait recognition is good but needs to be confirmed by legends. Perhaps it will help to understand the legend. The beginning AVTK is Autokrator or roughly the Greek form of Latin Imperator so it is common to all male rulers. Some used AK for Autokrator Kaesar. Similarly the end is CEB = Sebastos or Augustus so it does not help often. CEB also abbreviates Augusta so it does not even save you when it comes to gender but a legend ending in a single K rather than CEB suggests a son of Carus issuing as Caesar. That leaves the middle part that names the ruler. These coins decreased in size as time went on so anything as early as Philip I will be larger and generally easy to read since the workmanship was better. Most common is Probus which has the pi that usually shows well just as Claudius here has the K starting his name. You can get fooled by the lambda following the K which looks like an A making you suspect Carus or Carinus. More KLAVDIOC I have seen are given away by the end of the name IOC. Greek did not use a C for K sound and a letter that looks like a C is either what we call the Lunate Sigma (S) or a rounded off E which can often be weak in the middle and not show the cross bar. The last two rulers in the series were Diocletianos and Maximinianos which are usually hard to read because of small flans and the large number of small letters. The big clue is the number of letters since names like Probos, Klaudios and Takitos take up half the space as the long names. You will probably see a dozen of Probus for every single Carus or his sons. You will see some of the less common ones but start by seeing if the letters present could fit one of the common ones mentioned above before you get your hopes up for a rarity. The easiest one of the bunch to ID is the two headed Aurelian and Vabalathus which not only spells out their names but has year dates for both. My example here shows LA or year one for Aurelian and Ldelta for Vabalathus who controlled much of the Eastern Mediterranean when the coin was issued (but not much longer). Rather than trying to read the letters, start by looking at the list of possibilities and eliminating the ones that don't fit. I see no reason to doubt the coin being genuine.
I agree something is going on. When I saw it, in 4 seconds I thought Claudius Gothicus, Egyptian, barbaric. The portrait is extremely crude, and the eagle looks like its chopped off in height, which could be PMD. I am not familiar enough with these to know if this poor style, (I am looking at face and jawline, the rest is actually quite nice) is possible with these issues, if contemporary counterfiets are known, or what else it could be. If that portrait would have been an imperial I would almost guarantee a limes issue, (at least in my experience). It will be very interesting to find out if this portrait is possible for these issues. Btw I find limes coins fascinating, so not knocking the coin that way, it just appeared sub-imperial style. All of the mints were sent busts to copy from, and some emperors were very aware of their picture on coins, so usually they are pretty decent renditions. OTOH if Arditirion says its good, it probably is, I just am very curious why. Chris
http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/greece/egypt/alexandria/t.html If you look at the Wildwinds Claudius II coins you will note something of a range of styles. I don't see an exact match but there are some that are equally bad. Of course there is no reason to accept a coin as good just because it appears on Wildwinds. It seem pretty likely that there were more than one die cutters working at that time or half the coins I've seen are unofficial. I can't prove anything but ask those who say this is a fake to post a link to other fakes.
Ty for the link. I agree there are, especially late, some various qualities of workmanship. LD coin is weird. Every time I access this page, the coin strikes me as barbaric, but as I look at it closer seems better everywhere but the face. The rest of it actually seems fairly good style. However, I close the page, come back half an hour later, and again immediately think "barbaric". Its one of those coins that seem to play with your mind.
http://www.beastcoins.com/Collections/KeithEmmettEgypt/KeithEmmettRomanEgypt.htm The above link does not answer the question at hand here but it is has a lot of good pictures of Alexandrian coins worth seeing.
