First ancient.

I hate those...

 

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Thanks for the warm welcome and advice guys, Here it is... Thinner than I expected.

 

Roman coins were not that thick, except maybe a bronze sestertius. If you want thicker coins, you are best off sticking to 1st-3rd century bronze sestertii or provincial tets.

And the coin you bought is from a time period full of reforms and attempts to stem inflation (rather unsuccessful). The coins from this time period aren't exactly known for their thickness, artistry, etc. Still a nice first coin though. You did well, and hopefully you are happy with your first foray into ancients.

 

Thanks for info, yes I am happy. I had no preference. I was just under the impression most ancients were thicker, robust and built for abuse. I like it, it feels very delicate and gives me a new perspective. Can anyone tell me how long a coin like this remained in circulation?

 

Not sure how long, but we do have some mid to late 4rth century coins that were revalued in the 6th century by Barbarian Kings in Italy. So presumably there were some coins in circulation 150+ years after they were struck.

Keep in mind these things...there were a lot less people than today, so coins passed through less hands than modern coins, and ancients tended to hoard/store away and sometimes burry their coins for months/years for safekeeping...given that there were no banks and coins were much more valuable than coins are to us in a world ruled by paper money and digital currency. All that adds up to less continuous time in circulation and thus less wear.

For us it is not uncommon to still find quarters and nickels from 50+ years ago in circulation. Now imagine if these coins were worth $5 and $25 a piece, and there were no banks in existence, so someone put some as savings in a box for 10 or 15 years until he made a big purchase, then the person who got them next had them buried in a jar for 5 years while he went on campaign with the army, and assume they spent a few weeks or months in a box in the homes of subsequent owners as savings until they were spent. Even though they are now 50 year old coins, their wear is not that significant, and can probably circulate for a few more decades just fine.

 

Incredible to say the least.

 

At that period, coins remained in circulation a rather short time due to declines in weight standards and coinage reforms when old coins were removed from circulation and replaced by new ones. You coin was a fractional part of a larger coin we call a follis. There are different theories but I favor 2/5 follis for the ones with a radiate crown on the portrait. These contained no silver but followed a similar coin that had a nominal amount (one part silver and 20 parts copper). The follis was closer to a half dollar size and retained a bit of silver at the start when Diocletian reformed the coinage. The follis was issued in decreasing size, weight and metal over a few years so production the fractions was discontinued. This is a photo from my page on the matter. Note the US cent under the coin at the right.
http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/denom.html


Left to Right: Diocletian 10.6g c.300 AD; Galerius 7.9g 309-310 AD; Maximinus II 4.5g 313 AD; Licinius I 4.3g 313 AD; Crispus 3.4g 317-320 AD; Constantine I 2.4g 332-3 AD; Constantine I 1.5g 337 AD

At this period, several mints were scattered across the Empire and most mints were subdivided into workshops. Your coin was made in Kyzikos (Cyzicus) by the E=5th workshop.

Below is an 9.5g. whole follis of Maximianus (Antioch mint, shop B=2). If you specialize in coins of this period, you will want the books that catalog these and give an order and date for issues.

This radiate fraction is like yours except it was made at Heraclea in the first (A) shop.


I suggest collecting generally and letting your specialties find you rather than starting out only buying one type of coin. Perhaps your next coin will be a large sestertius or silver denarius of an earlier period??? You have many choices to make. Perhaps it will be Greek or from a place you have not yet realized was a possibility. I have pages for that, too.
http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/voc.html

 

The initial coin representing Italica showed a reverse with ITAL with a legend break after IT at the top and a widely spaced A L at right. When a coin was then later created for Augusta, they simply copied the previous coin and swapped the A L at right with AVG representing Augusta, but they mistakenly recreated/copied the IT at the top from the initial Italica coin in the later coin probably not even realizing it (Was the engraver lliterate? Did he have little understanding of the meaning of the legend or what IT meant? Was there no proofreading or quality control? Did they catch it, but just thought "who cares" and struck with it anyways?).

 

This is more info than I could have asked for. I'm a bit overwhelmed and now have twice as many questions. Extremely informative,TU. How on earth have the workshops been associated to particular strikes? Are there mintmarks?

 

I see. Well I might just have to post a thread in error coins! Lol Thx for clearing that up 4me Justin.

 

Short answer: Read my page for the long answer:
http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/officina.html

 

Good article. My answer is... Decoding mint structures,referenced by die links. Tu