I’m still learning the ropes with these coins. Here are two follis coins which I may or may not have correctly identified. If you can, please let me know where I’ve gone wrong because I’m really into this subsection of the hobby and am looking for ways to improve my search tactics and the like. Here’s the first. I can’t figure out the ruler but I could figure out that this is the SALVS REIPVBLICAE reverse. This one seems to have the chi-rho in the left field. Or maybe just a Latin cross? Anyway, if I had to take a guess I think it would be RIC IX 67d which would be Arcadius and from the Antioch mint.
I don't know ANYTHING about Ancients but where did you learn that trick with the etching to enhance visibility of the details? Smart!!! That is definitely one of the hacks that I've seen here on CoinTalk (like putting tissue paper over coins to quickly pick out which are the silver ones and how to release coins stuck in capsules with a dryer) that I'll never forget.
Dattari-Savio is a Roman coin reference book which relied on pencil rubbings like this. Here is a nice example from here on CT. https://www.cointalk.com/threads/dattari-savio-lets-party-like-its-1999.375980/
Coin #2 looks like Theodosius, but I guess I don't know where and the site I looked at (don't remember which) didn't have it, or I missed it. Notably, a dot rather than the chi-rho/cross of the other.
The first coin is pretty dead, sorry. None of the important details for specific identification are present. It could be Theodosius I or Valentinian II or Arcadius or Honorius. The mintmark is illegible. The field mark is certainly a staurogram (⳨), but most mints used it. Also, the reverse actually says SALVS REIPVBLICAE.
here’s a larger coin from Cyzicus. Can’t read a single letter and don’t really recognize the reverse. and one more. Which I’ve honestly never seen before. All the rest I’m good with.
I figured as much but wanted to be sure. Thank you for your time. Thanks for the correction as well, no excuse for that.
I highly recommend you check out tesorillo, it's a great resource for learning more about late roman bronzes: https://www.tesorillo.com/aes/home.htm
Knowing this much, you might still be able to identify the ruler. Most of these coins begin with "D N [name of emperor]" and end with ". . . P F AVG" 1) If you can definitely make out the 3rd letter in the inscriptions, that would identify the emperor. Unfortunately, "A"s often look like "H"s in these inscription, so that might not help distinguishing between Arcadius and Honorius. 2) The number of letters in the inscription can help. Since each inscription contains the 5 letters above, both Arcadius and Honorius would have 13 letters altogether (not much help there, either), Theodosius has 15, and Valentinian II, written as Valentinianus has 18. 3) Most inscriptions have a break in the middle, where the emperor's head splits it in half. An inscription without this break identifies the coin as Valentinian II (although some of his coins have the split inscriptions). 4) "O"s tend to be easy to spot. Look for "O[another letter]O". If you see this in a shorter inscription, think Honorius. In a longer inscription, it's Theodosius. And I second @ultprice's recommendation about tesorillo. Hope this is helpful.
This is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you very much. I could see the O but I wasn't sure if there was enough room for Theodosius. Fantastic, I will venture on.
