I purchased this one on eBay last night because I'd never seen anything like it. H/T to @Spaniard for informing me about it. The inscription is unclear and I'm not even sure whether it's in Greek or Latin. I am sure it's Faustina II. It's 22 mm and weighs 5.83 g. An old collector's tag attributes it to Poroselene, but I'm not so sure that's correct. It features a youth (Taras? Cupid? Melicertes?) riding a dolphin, swimming left, reminiscent of the silver coins of Taras. There is a coin of Poroselene with a youth riding dolphin reverse, RPC IV.2 10103, but the dolphin is swimming right and the style is very different. Moreover, the reverse inscription on that coin reads ΠΟΡΟϹƐΛΗΝƐΙΤΩΝ, and I don't think that's compatible with the few letters on the reverse of my coin. I tried searching for "Poroselene" at RPC to see if the reverse appeared on other coins of this city, but to no avail. I know that Corinth issued a number of coins with dolphins, including a few depicting Melicertes riding a dolphin, but an RPC search for "Corinth Dolphin" yields nothing similar, nor does a search for "Faustina Dolphin." I need help with this one. Thanks in advance!
The legends look Latin to me. 3 - 6 o' clock on the reverse possibly reads [C] I C A for Colonia Julia Concordia Apamea? RPC Online doesn't yield anything for Faustina [edit: with a dolphin] from that city, but take a look at this Commodus with Venus seated on a dolphin: https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/4/4735
I think you have it! Here's the listing of Antonine coins of Apamea in BMC 13, pp. 112-13. While the British Museum collection has nothing with a dolphin, you'll note the inscriptions read C I C A D D. I think the two duplicated letters below the dolphin's head (that look like d d or p p, depending on if they are upside down or not) may well be D D. Here is one from Apamea of Geta with a similar reverse:
The "youth riding a dolphin" theme reminds me of a similar coin I see in CNG auction recently. Cute dolphin, but unfortunately the coin has a different legend compared to your example. https://auctions.cngcoins.com/lots/...adumenian-as-caesar-ad-217-218-195mm-452-g-7h
Another interesting thing -- Among the four coins of Faustina from Apamea in RPC IV, there is this one (RPC IV.1 4729) where the authors note that the V in Faustina as well as in the reverse legend are rendered as a U. This is exactly what's going on here with my coin.
Nice catch - I was watching that one on eBay and I had no idea what it was. I just liked the way it looked. (No, I did not bid on it!).
Thanks, everyone (especially @zumbly ). I've uncovered additional information that proves definitively it is from Apamea in Bithynia-Pontus and which allows me to reconstruct the legends, even though the coin is apparently unpublished. I'll be writing about it when I receive the coin in the mail and photograph it myself. Stay tuned!
https://archive.org/details/recueilgnraldes01babegoog/page/n222/mode/2up Faustina with the Neptune reverse, Plate XXXIX, 1