Arcadius--RARE Unpublished Exergue Type ??

Discussion in 'Ancient Coins' started by Steven Michael Gardner, Apr 14, 2020.

  1. Steven Michael Gardner

    Steven Michael Gardner Well-Known Member

    Please confirm if I am correct in saying this coin has not yet been published??
    All of you Reference experts jump in on this item... Arcadius.jpg Arcadius-R.jpg
    Arcadius: Constantinople Mint 388-392 AD. Second Officina
    Size: 15mm, 1.23g

    Obverse: D N ARCADIVS P F AVG Bust of Arcadius,
    pearl-diademed, draped and cuirassed, right

    Reverse: SALVS REI-PVBLICAE Victory advancing left,
    carrying trophy over shoulder with right hand, and dragging
    captive; Christogram in left field; CONS(dot)(dot) in exergue

    References: RIC –(See 86c & 90b for type; different striking)
    Very Rare, Unpublished Exergue Type,
    "Two Dots Replace Alpha-numeric ???"
     
    Dougmeister and Alegandron like this.
  2. Avatar

    Guest User Guest



    to hide this ad.
  3. Kiaora

    Kiaora Active Member

    The line below the captive is not straight with the line below Victory which suggests that it could be a striking artefact from a poor strike, with the 2 ‘dots’ being the remains of the legs of the captive or the feet of the officina letter (A) rather than an unknown mintmark variety
     
    Inspector43 likes this.
  4. dougsmit

    dougsmit Member

    Rule of thumb: New die types that could remotely possibly be explained as a striking artifact require confirmation with a second specimen before they can be accepted with any certainty. There can't be more that a few thousand dies of these. Finding a match might be a matter of luck but I hope you find one.
     
    Roman Collector and Inspector43 like this.
  5. Dougmeister

    Dougmeister Well-Known Member

    >Arcadius--RARE Unpublished Exergue Type ??

    I liked your post just because you used the word "exergue"...

    I've been playing a lot of Scrabble during this quarantine ;-)
     
    Roman Collector likes this.
  6. Valentinian

    Valentinian Well-Known Member

    Arcadius20847AE4SALVSmmCONSg13157.jpg
    Arcadius. 14-13 mm. 1.46 grams.
    The mintmark seems to be CONΓ possibly followed by a dot, but the dot may be a foot of the captive. The type is, like the OP type, RIC Constantinople 86, from 388-392, issues shared with Valentinian II and Theodosius. If the OP coin has two dots, there would be something similar, a variant, for Valentinian II and for Theodosius. Not only must we heed @dougsmit 's "Rule of thumb," we should also find parallels for Valentinian II and Theodosius before we can assert the existence of a new mintmark configuration.

    That said, the OP coin is extremely nice for type and fun to contemplate.
     

    Attached Files:

    Bing likes this.
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page