Recently I received the very awesome coin below. It's from an issue of interesting coins that have a coded mint mark including portions of either the word "Hercules" for Maximian and "Jupiter" for Diocletian ("HP" on my coin). See Doug's page linked below to learn about them... he explains it better than I would. Doug Smith's Page on 'Coded' Antoniniani: https://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/code.html Maximianus AE Antoninianus (pre-reform), Siscia 290 AD obv. IMP CMA VAL MAXIMIANVS PF AVG, radiate head right. rev. CONSERVATOR AVGG, Emperor, holding sceptre, and Hercules, shouldering club and lion's skin, standing face to face, sacrificing at altar. A in left field. Mintmark dot XXI dot HP dot. RIC V-II, Siscia 582 var. (reverse type, obv. legend and bust type), unrecorded; Cohen:-. What's cool about mine is the depiction of Hercules. In nearly all of these coins, Hercules is leaning on his club... without the lion skin that is one of his other main attributes. Like this coin below: On my coin (1st coin above), you can see that Hercules is holding both his club (on shoulder rather than leaning on it) and the lion skin in the same arm. The coin is in great shape with a lot of detail and silvering. It's really fun to look at under magnification. Let's see your Maximian or Diocletian CONSERVATOR AVGG coins! Here's some more information if you're interested the series: Google the title: SISCIAN ISSUES OF CONSERVATOR AVGG ANTONINIANI FOR DIOCLETIAN AND MAXIMIAN (I didn't want to link it because it automatically downloads the pdf (in my computer's case)) And a link to information on an interesting mule of the type (but unrelated to my specific coin): http://www.forumancientcoins.com/Articles/east_meets_west.htm
@Orange Julius fantastic coin, and nice writeup - the sharpness of the lion skin and general condition of your coin is brilliant. Thanks for highlighting this series and interesting references to @dougsmit and the 2017 article of Margetić & Margetić. Link here: https://hrcak.srce.hr/file/288696 I am curious to know if there is any known pattern to the officina being in exergue or in field? Finding the two companion coins to make a matched set at that level of quality would be quite a feat! XXI+HP and XXI+KOY and XXI+ΛΙ (HPKOYΛΙ). Only one KOY that I could find https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=4108493 I don't have any to share - another addition to the infinite ideas for interesting ancients to collect...
Obviously not in RIC: Maximianus Herculeus, AD 286 - 310 AE - Antoninianus (pre-reform), 4.37g, 23.2mm Siscia 1. officina, AD 290 obv. IMP CMA VAL MAXIMIANVS PF AVG bare bust, radiate head r. rev. CONSERVATOR AVGG Emperor, holding sceptre, and Hercules, shouldering club and lion's skin, standing face to face, sacrificing at altar l. field: A ex.: dot XXI dot HP dot RIC V/2, Siscia 582 var., unrecorded; not in Cohen R!, good VF, rest of silvering, thick flan RIC 582 has obv. legend only P AVG, and bust type 'cuirassed' not 'bare'! Best regards
Orange Julius, What a fantastic score ! It would take a lifetime of looking to find another example with a reverse as fine as yours . The coded research by Doug Smith gives the coin even more importance.
I believe each of the basic reverses come with officina in field, left of the exergue code, in the middle of it and right of it. Each comes with at least two bust variations so a set for both emperors would be 48 coins. I have several but nowhere close to the set.
Great coins everyone! I'll be on the lookout for more now... they're scarce though and aren't easy to find. Anyway, I thought I'd see if I could get a closeup of Hercules... sometimes things don't look as cool in macro as you think they may. I think this is the case here. Plus with my $5 iPhone lens, I was having a hard time getting anything in focus. Hercules wan't meant to be seen so magnified. He was meant to be viewed as part of a scene, sacrificing with the emperor... and that scene looks cooler from further away.
Here is my page on the coded antoniniani: http://augustuscoins.com/ed/officina/ Maximian XXI Γ ΛI Γ = 3 is the last officina and ΛI is the last part of Hercules = HRKOYΛI As @Orange Julius notes, this is the commoner variety in which Hercules is leaning on his club on the ground, as opposed to holding it up as on the OP coin.