Newp: Constantius II Phoenix

Do you have an attribution yet? I think it is RIC VIII Constantinople 93. However, depending on the mintmark, the coin is listed as scarce to R5. The image is a bit dark , but I make out the mm to be "CONSB something". Is that right? If it is CONSB star it would be R5.

 

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Doug, if you like the coin, PM me your address. I would very much like to give it to you as a small token of my appreciation for all the work you put into your pages, and how much I've learned from them.

 

When I zoom in I see CONSA dot. Is that one of the variations? I have RIC VIII coming my way this week, so I'll be able to compare it myself.

 

I don't see CONSA dot, but there is a CONSA listed as R4 and CONSA star as scarce.

 

Thanks Bing - I'll have to wait till I have it in hand - just no telling for certain from that pic.

 

JA => great looking Phoenix #2 ... both of your new Phoenix coins are awesome!!

 

These two coins arrived in the post yesterday. They aren't quite as green as the seller's images, but they are lovely pieces. Here's the first...



A few observations. RIC notes that the legend FEL·TEMP·REPARATIO sometimes occurs without the punctuation, as on my coin. But I have yet to see a legend with the punctuation. It seems to me the version without dots is more common.

Also, as far as the quasi-Phoenician marks go, the table on page 366 of RIC VIII seems to imply there's a correlation between the marks and officina letters, but my coin does not present that correlation. Do so many of those marks line up with the Greek letters, on so many coins, that one can draw the conclusion that they represent equivalent numbers in different alphabets? Is my coin an anomaly - an error perhaps? Or are the squiggly marks something else altogether: batch numbers?



Even RIC admits the complexity of the problem (p.344)...

Later in the same paragraph...

By the way, I used the expression "quasi-Phoenician", but I haven't seen any scholarship that connects the marks to the Phoenician alphabet. That's just a personal observation.

 

Yes a good looking coin for sure

Aaahhhh ! memories !
This Phoenix on pyre type for Constantius II was one of my first ancient coins purchase, exactly thirty years ago....I don't own it anymore though

Q

 

Here's the pic of the second coin - your attribution was right Bing. The mint-mark is definitely CONSAstar. The star is just very weak - I'm guessing weakly-engraved, since there's no evidence of a weak strike anywhere on the coin.

 

Because many people are posting very nice Constantius coins, I thought I might as well post this here http://wildwinds.com/coins/ric/fakes2009.htm.

A friend of mine got suckered punched with one of these before she found that article.

BTW I'm not saying any of your coins are fake, but this is so you guys (and gals) can look out for these.

 

Thank you vlaha - I've added those images to my database of fakes. Be sure to click on the Polish website for the large images.

The Constans/Phoenix certainly looked fishy in some ways, but the others would have fooled me completely.

 

I'd need a better photo to say anything about the final letter and whether it matches the RIC column. Today I went to the Virginia Numismatic Assn show and 14 coins followed me home. The only one photographed so far is this Constans BSIS with the letter that certainly matches the RIC drawing of B. I'm too tired to do more photos tonight. I get more coins at shows than by mail anymore and still make mistakes. My nicest coin today turns out to be a duplicate of one I had but just a lot nicer style. You'll see it eventually.

 

Nice pic as always, Doug. Looking forward to seeing the rest. I'll take a closer shot of my mark tomorrow as well.