I recently purchased the following victoriatus from FORVM after having it in my wishlist for a month or so and having looked at it more times than I can count. This is actually third one in my collection(you can see the other two here). Because these were struck at various military mints as well as the official Roman mint, many hands carved these dies and as a result, the styles vary considerably from series to series, so much so that in some cases there are "fully anonymous" varieties without symbols or monograms but which are clearly linked to series with symbols by their style. On the coin below you can see that Victory has a disproportionately large head, and if you compare to the coins linked above you can see that Jupiter has a completely different style as well. Unfortunately, these stylistic variations aren't similar enough to any other series to draw any conclusions about the mint, but these sorts of things are what make the Victoriatus denomination so interesting to me. Roman Republic AR Victoriatus(17 mm, 2.54g, 9h). Anonymous("MP" series). ca. 211-208 B.C. Uncertain mint(traditionally, Metapontum). Laureate head of Jupiter right. Border of dots / Victory standing right, crowning trophy with wreath; MP ligate on exergue between. ROMA in exergue. Line border. Crawford 93/1a; Sydenham 111; RBW 387; RSC 36h; BMCRR Italy 246. Ex. Andrew McCabe Collection, Ex. CNG E-Auction 273, Lot 319 Please feel free to share anything similar!
I love the "alien" head of Victory. I guess I will have to break down and get one of these soon. Congrats.
Posted this coin like 3 times, 2nd time today, but whatever. Yours is a much more nicer and awesome example!
Thanks! If you do end up looking for one I highly recommend reading through this page: http://stevebrinkman.ancients.info/anonymous/AnonymousVictoriatii.html Most on the market are the "fully anonymous"(no symbols/monograms) varieties and it'll help you ID them, as there are quite a few variations.
No problem! Another similarly-helpful link for denarii, also written by Steve Brinkman: http://stevebrinkman.ancients.info/anonymous/
That was a cool link, red_spork ... thanks Oh, and congrats on your cool new OP-addition (very nice) => I have a fairly nice example as well (wanna see it, again?)
Nice examples, everyone! Thanks for that link! I wasn't completely sure of my victoriatus's Crawford number-- it was unidentified and part of a large mixed lot-- but now I am confident that it is correct: Roman Republic, anonymous AR victoriatus 211-208 BCE, Sicilian mint? 15 mm, 3.2 gm Obv: laureate head of Jupiter right Rev: Victory standing right, erecting (crowning? Is there a difference?) trophy; ROMA in exergue Ref: Crawford 67/1
Cool Victoriatus @red_spork ... I love their varieties... I have one with a STAR (it is filled in, not like the lined Pentagrams)... Roman Republic 211-206 BCE AR Victoriatus. Anonymous issue Obv: Laureate head of Jupiter r. REV: Victory crowning trophy; in field, pentagram (nope! I call it a STAR !!!), ROMA in ex Sear 50; Sydenham 233a. Crawford 105/1 2.54 g, 18 mm
My example of the OP coin: Not such a big head on Victory, and a lot of other differences of reverse detail as well. IMO, the two reverse dies, although part of the same modestly-sized MP victoriatus issue, are unmistakably the products of different engravers. I would suggest the same about the two obverse dies also, but with less confidence. Note that both my coin and the OP are Crawford 93/1a; 93/1b has a much smaller head of Zeus on the obverse. 93/1c is the same general obverse style, but lacks the MP monogram or any other identifying mark on the reverse.
I'm piggy backing on this old @red_spork thread introducing this variety (before my time on this forum) to share my recent acquisition of an example of the MP victoriatus, RRC 93/1a. It is perhaps in a lower grade than I normally prefer, but in all of the most important criteria, it meets my thresholds - Well centered, Style is prototypical of this variation, It is struck from apparently unworn dies, and most major elements of the design are discernible. There are some minor laminations and flan issues on both sides, but these are not distracting to me at all. It has some wear, but wear in itself is low on my list of criteria as long as it doesn’t obliterate major details of the design. Overall, it is a good representation of this interesting variety. To add a dimension to this thread, there are actually two variations of RRC 93 victoriati, and stylistically they could not be more different. RRC 93/1b for comparison has a much more rounded head of Jupiter with wavy locks on the back of the neck. The reverse shows Victory as a rather squat figure. RRC 93/1c is of the same style as RRC 93/1b, but is fully anonymous without the MP ligate. It is somewhat more scarce than RRC 93/1a. Here is RRC 93/1b (not mine) from Bertalomi EAuction 5.
