I know at times we come across things done in error. I came across and purchased the below coin: Julian II Æ3, Votive Issue, Antioch Mint RIC Vol VIII 219 (Variant) The previous owner thought the "VOT" on reverse was done as "TOT" yes to me it looks like it was done "TOV" after looking at other votives the last letter appears to have been a V which would indicate it was done backwards. I say it appears like a V base on the state of the letter as you can see compared with this: I don't see any record of this in Wildwinds of other places. I would love to hear any information or comments you might have. I think I will clean it off a little bit more if possible once I get it in hand.
I suspect the die-engraver forgot he was supposed to engrave a mirror image of the inscription but caught his error after engraving VOT. Here's a case of switching letters around such that the inscription reads VINO REGINA instead of IVNO REGINA: Compare to:
Very interesting Britannia. One of our members has an excellent website with lots of information on the VOTA coin type.. you should have a look: http://augustuscoins.com/ed/VOTA/ I recently purchased this Nero with a couple of oddities on the reverse: You can see the "SC" is reversed... and well as an unusual starting point for the legend. The full reverse legend is: PACE P R VBIQ PARTA IANVM CLVSIT You can see that CLVSIT (the last word of the legend) is at the 12 o'clock position - so the start of the legend is at the 2 o'clock position on this coin. I have not found another like it so far. Would have been great if the full legend was visible - but then again I probably would not have been able to afford the coin if that was the case.. so I like it as is. Nero. A.D. 54-68. Æ as. 9.7 gm. 28 mm. Rome mint. Struck circa A.D. 67 OBV: NERO CAESAR AVG GERM IMP Laureate bust of Nero, right REV: PACE PR VBIQ PARTA IANVM CLVSIT Temple of Janus, arch left RIC I 309, Sear 689 I have seen a few translations of the reverse legend - all slightly different.. I like this one best: "The Peace of the Roman People having been established everywhere, he closed (the Temple of) Janus." The doors of the Temple of Janus were kept open when Rome was at war.
That's a nice write up and website. I like that coin. I didn't realize there were many errors like this.
I really like this Janus error. As I see it, the problem is that the cutter of the temple and the cutter of the legends disagreed on which end of the temple was 'up'. If you invert the coin, the legend starts in the normal place and SC reads correctly. These were issued with doors on the right or left so I suggest that the second cutter on the die (which was done first?) thought he was doing a door left coin when he was really doing a door right upside down. Wonderful error.
Doug's explanation seems to make the most sense.. turning the coin upside down corrects the "SC" error and the legend is aligned. Makes you wonder how many slipped through before the error was discovered?
