I've been doing really well not buying any ancients lately but I had some Forvm dollars that were to expire & I guess paypal missed me & sent me a coupon to use on Forvm as well, so instead of letting a decent amount of "digital $ " disappear, I decided to go ahead & buy something cheap. There wasn't too much grabbing my attention in a range I was willing to spend & this Philip I Ant. appeared, I decided to spend the coupons on this. I have many Philip I coins, mainly Tetradrachms. Plus I didn't have any reverses of " Nobilitas" on them. This coin has some short provenance to go with it. So it won out. Philip I (244 - 249 A.D.) AR Antoninianus O: IMP PHILIPPVS AVG, laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right, from behind. R: NOBILITAS AVGG, Nobilitas standing facing, head right, long scepter vertical in right hand, globe in left hand, ς (6th officina) left. 4.34g 25mm Rome Mint RSC IV 98, Hunter III 41, SRCV III 8938, RIC IV 8 corr. (officina mark) Ex. Beast Coins, Ex. Harlan Berk CICF show April 2018
That is part of the first Roman series to use Greek numerals to designate the workshops. I do not collect sets but this is a set I recommend as an exception. Four shops struck for PhilipI. Also below is one error coin where the 'B' (2) was engraved retrograde. Shop three was used for Philip II and four was Otacilia. A soldier (clothed) B Tranquillitas B retrograde E two emperors on horseback S Nobilitas gamma Philip II Mars (nude) delta Otacilia Severa Pietas I have no answer for why these numbers were assigned to the rulers but note that the other, Roman numeraled, Saeculares series used the same system.
That's a great-looking coin, Mat. Nobilitas is an interesting reverse type - a while back I was looking into it and came across this great FORVM post: https://www.forumancientcoins.com/moonmoth/reverse_nobilitas.html So it seems Nobilitas didn't show up until Commodus. Here are three of mine: Commodus denarius: Commodus sestertius: Geta as a kid: