Maximan Potin or Claudius II Gothicus?

I picked this coin up a few weeks ago on a gut feeling. The seller had it as a Maximan Potin which is what I'm sure it is at least think it is. I was looking on Vcoins & saw a darn good look alike as a Claudius II Gothicus. So now I'm unsure which to attribute. I'm still learning Ancients & didn't pay much for it.
Maxima Potin
Tetradrachm 275-276 AD
20.3mm 8g
Eagle head turned Left

 

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Tacitus. You can see AKITO in the obverse legend.

 

Listen to Martin!

 

It's neither.

Tacitus, Emmett 3973.

 

Listen to Martin and TIF!

 

Tacitus is the ruler Alexandria is the mint.
What confuses me is the seller whom I trust he's one of our own on CT ha's as Maximan Potin but vcoins has as far as I could tell the same coin listed as Claudius II. Could the listing on vcoins be a mistake?

 

OK TIF you lost me on the Emmet 3973.
I've been collecting mods 1800's-mid 1900's & world for a few years but new about 2 months for ancients still learning.

 

Oh. Sorry!

There are many reference books and catalogs for coins of Roman Egypt. Keith Emmett wrote one of the newer books and "Emmett 3973" is the catalog number for your coin.

A general format for describing ancient coins is more or less like this (for provincial coins):

Region/Kingdom, City. Person
Year struck or year of reign
type of metal, size, weight
Obverse description
Reverse description
References (catalog numbers, book references, etc which match the coin type)

For your coin, I'd write it like this:

EGYPT, Alexandria. Tacitus
regnal year 1, 275/6 CE
potin tetradrachm, 20.3 mm, 8 gm
Obv: AKKΛTAKITOCCEB; laureate bust right
Rev: eagle standing right, head left, wreath in beak; ETOYC - A
Ref: Emmett 3973.1; Milne 4501

"3973.1"; the .1 shows that your coin was from his first (well, only ) regnal year).

Milne is another reference book. As mentioned, there are many such reference books/catalogs for coins of Roman Egypt.

"ETOYC - A" means the first regnal year.

The obverse legend is difficult to read on your coin but it is certainly Tacitus.

 

When you say "the same coin", what are you basing that on? Portrait style + eagle on reverse? The portraits from this era are usually indistinguishable from one another and the eagle reverse is the most common type.

Can you post a link to the coin in question? Perhaps the seller did make a mistake. I find many misidentified Roman Egyptian tetradrachms on Vcoins and in other auctions.

 

Thanks TIF.
I have all of 15 coins that fall within "ancient" always been fascinated with them. History mainly.
Have 100''s of other types of coins but 1775 being the oldest of my mods & world collection.

 

I suspect you'll soon have far more than 15 .

I have oodles of Roman Egyptian coins (many more not yet loaded onto my website), having purchased a few large lots of the common types plus many more individual coins as I've grown more selective.

Here's a Tacitus like yours except for the direction of the eagle, which warranted a separate catalog number in Emmett's book. It's 3974.1, also very common:

 

I will look for it I didn't save or wright any info. I was up burning the midnight oil.
I compared photo of my coin to pic. Because it caught me weird, I was actually looking for a Claudius when I saw it. My eye isn't trained but I'm learning, not been the type to seek out errors but rather a nice strike & coinage

 

TIF what I think I did was a "similar" coin. I looked on vcoins trying to trace back to where I looked previously. What I found was a simular obv. But the rev. while has an eagle it's head is turned to the right & the eagle was scrawny almost like you'd see on one of those zombuck coins.

 

Hi @Smojo, If you want to know, It reads AYTOKPATOP KAICAP KΛAYΔIOC TAKITOC CEBACTOC, that we can translate as Imperator Caesar Claudius Tacitus Augustus.

 

Below are five eagles from Alexandria but each is from a different ruler. There are many other minor variations for example in the pose of the eagle and the date which is generally the number on the reverse preceeded by an L. For practice, see if you can read any of these. Obviously some are easier to read than others and rulers with long names have to use smaller letters which never helps.


It gets worse. The eagles below are from empresses.

 

i have a claudius ii lefty eagle i picked up off our own ken d by way of vcoins..





Claudius II Gothicus 269 - 270 A.D. Billon tetradrachm Alexandria mint

obverse: AVT K KLAVΔIOC CEB, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right from behind; reverse: L-B (year 2), eagle standing right, looking back, holding wreath in beak; 22 mm 10.8g Milne 4265

 

The EAGLE I like from Egypt is from the Ptolemaic Era. And only the Ptolemies that I feel were worth a darn were Ptolemy I and II. After that, no one was worthy of the Eagle (Ptolemy or Roman) in my book.


EGYPT
Ptolemy I
Signed by the Designer / Artist with a Delta behind his ear (curl of his hair).
305-285 BCE
AR Tetradrachm
OBV: Ptolemy I facing r, Delta behind ear, punch marks
REV: Standing Eagle l, punch marks.
23.6mm x 4.5mm (thick), 13.8g



EGYPT
Ptolemy II 285-247 BCE
AE 17mm 5g

 

Vcoins wonder if thats the one i saw, LMAO.
Ok I guess i have to give credits as to where I picked mine.
I happened on it on one of Nathans holding_history. I've actually picked 5 or 6 coins from him maybe a few more than that. Not all ancients though

 

Tacitus? ... ummm, sure okay

=> I have the world's most humble Tet to toss into Smojo's cool thread ...



... oh, and non-active, hard and crusty (that's also what my wife calls me)

 

I might suggest you get in to the Dr as soon as you can. Is it contagious???