Need help with Carausius attribution

Discussion in 'Ancient Coins' started by Roman Collector, May 9, 2020.

  1. thejewk

    thejewk Well-Known Member

    Excellent, sounds like the RIC volume should be with us shortly then. I'll definitely be investing in a copy.

    I really hope Sam Moorhead provides a good section and comparative analysis of the 'Aberrant Types'. It could give us a real head start on trying to understand the chronology and mint operations at work during that time.
     
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  3. Andrew McCabe

    Andrew McCabe Well-Known Member

    Party crashing this Carausius discussion because I just added a coin previously owned by the Carausius expert and author of RIC V, Percy Webb, from his named sale in Adolph Hess May 1932. It's the coin at left. 20201204_162025.jpg
     
  4. svessien

    svessien Senior Member

    Carausius.jpg

    Here’s my Carausius. No beauty, but probably more «official».
    How kind of Mr. Morehead to reply in that fashion!
     
  5. thejewk

    thejewk Well-Known Member

    @Roman Collector You might be interested in this article by Adrian Marsden:
    https://www.academia.edu/38838512/Irregular_Roman_Coinage_part_3_Carausius

    Also, if you click on his name in the link and look through the articles, part 2 might also be of interest. He speculates that Carausius used the (potentially travelling) minters of 'barbaric radiates' to form his initial minting staff to produce his earliest coins, which are without mint marks, and very variable in style and quality. If not, it is at least likely that a lot of these early issues were made by melting down existing barbaric radiates, when they weren't overstruck on genuine issues, because metallurgical analysis has shown that some share a tin rich alloy with the smaller and later radiates, and others show the same make up of very old sestertii and middle bronzes which were melted out of circulation with the debasement of the silver coinage altogether pre Carausius.

    Lots of speculation there, but when isn't there when it comes to numismatics?
     
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