Philip the Arab Carpic Campaign Mint - RIC 51 and others

Whenever I get a new ancient, I troll the Internet looking for information (most of you do this too, I am sure). Usually I hit all the usual spots - Vcoins, Wildwinds, auction searches, etc.

Sometimes I hit something unexpected and I thought I'd share this with Coin Talk (I searched the forum and couldn't find anything on this topic, so I think this is new information here; my apologies is this is a repeat).

The coin in question is a common Philip the Arab antoninianus with Victory standing reverse (RIC 51). Many of you may have this in your collection. RIC says this is an issue from the Rome mint, but there are compelling theories that this might not be the case. This coin may in fact have been minted for Philip's campaign against the Carpi, this per a fascinating article "AUXILIARY MINT FOR CARPIC CAMPAIGN (AD 247)" by Thibault Marchal on http://marchal.thibaut.free.fr/e_auxiliary.htm

"It seems difficult to deal with antoniniani from Antioch without talking about the case of antoniniani of Philip II as Caesar and Otacilia Severa with reverses IOVI CONSERVAT and IVNO CONSERVAT, since those coins are often attributed to the mint of Antioch - the RIC having sown confusion - or to the mint of Rome as in Sear III. So it appeared useful to me to present a synthesis of the actual knowledge about these issues...

The article goes on to describe the thinking behind ascribing these to a mint other than Rome or Antioch. Then it gets to the coin I just got:

"The question of the attribution of the PhilipI VICTORIA AVGG type depicting Victoria standing left (Cohen 235, RIC 51) to another mint than Rome was raised for the first time by Samuel K Eddy in 1967 ("The Minting of Antoniniani AD 238-249 and the Smyrna Hoard" , New York, American Numismatic Society, Numismatic Notes & Monographs n° 156) who proposed Viminacium as the emitting mint. If this hypothesis cannot be retained on stylistic grounds, it seems on the other hand that this type can be associated to the previously described coins. According to Curtis Clay (Harlan J Berk Ltd), this hypothesis is supported by the fact that no gold or bronze coins - Sestertius, As or Dupondius - present this exact reverse (Victoria is depicting walking left on AE coins with reverse VICTORIA AVGG), and J. Muona's stylistic analysis also seems to support this hypothesis that this type was not minted in Rome.

The question of the identification of the mint remains open, and I do not claim to bring here a precise answer to it. What is certain is that these coins were not minted in Rome nor Antioch, but nevertheless they present some common characteristics with the Rome mint style. According to Curtis Clay, these coins could have been minted during Carpic Campaign (AD 245-247) by an auxiliary mint of the mint of Rome. Consequently, one can imagine either an itinerant mint that followed the displacements of the armies of Philip to provide it with currencies, or the establishment of this mint in an unidentified provincial city probably located near the area occupied by the armies."
http://marchal.thibaut.free.fr/e_auxiliary.htm

Of course we will never know for sure, but the hypotheses are compelling, I thought. The one I just got is below. Any other standing Victoria's of Philip out there, or others mentioned in the article issued for the Mrs. or junior?



Philip I the Arab
(247 A. D.) Antoninianus
Auxiliary mint for Carpic Campaign (or Rome?)
IMP M IVLPHILIPPVS AVG radiate, draped & cuirassed bust right / VICTORIA AVG,
Victory standing left holding wreath and palm.
RIC 51; Cohen 235
(3.56 grams / 23 mm)

 

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Kinda wish we had Peabody and Sherman's Wayback Machine so that we could know what really happened!


I only have Phil The Arab 1000Anniv Ant-Ant!


RI Philip I Arab 244-249 CE AR Ant radiate zoo Antelope 1000 yr anniv Rome

 

Here is my Philip the Arab its a XF superb condition one of best in my collection

 

thanks for the link. I have an example from Otacilia Severa for RIC 127.

 

Nice writeup, @Marsyas Mike

 

I'll show coins that may or may not be pertinent here and comment I am less than convinced that any of the experts have all this figured out quite yet. I still have my coins identified as shown in RIC not saying I believe that is certain either.

 

Thanks for the article, Mike. The link to the "stylistic study from Jyrki Muona" on that page seems to be broken, but I think I found a copy of it here:
http://forumancientcoins.com/Articles/Philip_Arab.pdf

I'm looking forward to going through it. Here's my example of RIC 51.

 

Good post!

 

kool coin and write up Phillip l / Anonnia antoninianus

 

Nice coin.

 

Thank you all for your enthusiastic responses and terrific examples. The credit for the post goes to Thibault Marchal and his wonderful article. I just cut n' paste.

 

I am reviving my own thread because I just got another antoninianus from what has been described as an issue of Philip the Arab's military mint for the Carpic Campaign. Relevant links are above. I realize it is just a theory, but a lot of thought and research went into it, and it impresses the heck out of me .

My new one is for his son Philip II. According to Thibault Marchal and others, the IOVI CONSERVAT (and variations) are part of this issue:

"If there is an obvious link between IVNO CONSERVAT (Cohen 20, RIC 127) and IOVI CONSERVAT (Cohen 13, RIC 213) coins, the link it is less evident for the Philip II AETERNIT IMPER type (Cohen 6, RIC 226) - often attributed to the mint of Rome - which nevertheless can be attributed to this same group. Indeed, the engraving style for the bust as well as for the letters constituting the legends (have a look at the excellent stylistic study from Jyrki Muona) is similar to that of IOVI CONSERVAT coin. These three types as well as their rare variants with long reverse legend IVNO CONSERVATRIX (Cohen 21, RIC 128) and IOVI CONSERVATORI (described by H. Cohen under number 13a, then copied in the Roman Imperial Coinage under number 214) thus form an issue that can not be stylistically attributed to the mint of Rome..."

http://marchal.thibaut.free.fr/e_auxiliary.htm

Here's my latest:



Philip II Antoninianus
(c. 245-247 A. D.)
Auxiliary mint for Carpic Campaign (or Rome?)
M IVL PHILIPPVS CAES, radiate, draped bust right / IOVI CONSERVAT, Jupiter
standing left with thunderbolt and spear.
RIC 213; RSC 13.
(3.48 grams / 21 mm)

Any more "Carpic Campaign" issues out there?