I'm pretty sure they are Roman but that's about all..... Please note that these are her photos using a 15 year old digital camera that records to a floppy disk. She doesn't like my camera as it is too fancy. She's anxious to find out what these coins are, if you know please share your knowledge. Thanks! :kewl:
The left one is an antoninianus of Diocletian, dating from somewhere between AD 284-293. The right one is an antoninianus as well, and it's hard to read, but I think it's depicting Maximianus, Diocletian's co-emperor, meaning that it's from AD 286-293.
I agree with the Diocletian, but if you want help on the other, we are going to at least need a strait on shot of it. the angles don't work. (or, just convince her that your camera owns ) stainless
Gao is certainly right about the emperors here and the Diocletian is an antoninianus. I can't really read what is there but you can see something written under the ground line (in exergue is the term) on the reverse. The Maximianus, however, shows a KE(? - K is clear) in the reverse field above the ground line. Compare mine here with a delta (workshop 4) instead of the E (workshop 5). Technically, that means that this coin is not an antoninianus but what we term a 'Post-reform radiate' issued from the mint at Cyzikos (K) after Diocletian's currency reform. That means that this coin lacks the 4.7% silver content expected from Pre-reform antoniniani. Taken as a pair, then, we have the two joint Augusti of the first Tetrarchy (you can get coins of the two Caesars to match) with one from the last period of old style coinage and one from the new issue after the reform that introduced the larger 'Follis' denomination retaining these as small change. That's what I'd call an educational set of earrings.
I think Doug's right here. I was reading it as KA, which was sometimes used rather than the XXI standard on late antoniniani, but now that I look at it more, I think he's right about it being KE. In any case, if it were the equivalent of XXI, it would probably have been in the exergue, so I would be wrong, anyway.
