Well I have had a slow start to the year so far but have finally had a coin arrive that I can share. I was planning not to get distracted by FEL TEMPs for a bit but it turns out I was completely wrong and my first arrival is a FEL TEMP. Constantius II - AE2 Obv:– D N CONSTANTIVS P F AVG, Pearl diademed, draped & cuirassed bust right Rev:– FEL TEMP REPARATIO, Helmeted soldier to left, shield on left arm, spearing falling horseman; shield on ground at right. Horseman is bearded and falls forward reachine towards emperor (type FH3) Minted in Antioch (* | _ //ANE). A.D. 348-350. Reference:- RIC VIII Antioch 122 var (unlisted for this officina, listed for A. B. D and Z, which are rated S by RIC) 4.54 g. 24.18 mm. 0 degrees A British metal detecting find. The coin has some surface issues on the obverse and there appears to be a spade mark diagonally from about three o'clock through the cheeck of the emperor. The reverse is however quite pleasing and I didn't have any examples from this earlier issue from Antioch. I know that @randygeki has examples from officinas B and Z and a quick look on acsearch turns up examples for B, H, I and Z, wildwinds turns up A, B and Z. So officine E is not unexpected in any way but it is still nice to fill a gap. We can now list officina A, B, D, E, H, Z and I
Great example. I haven't seen Randy around here for a while. Maybe I haven't been paying attention. And maybe the FH post will smoke him out.
Nice coin, lucky too that it came in. I have 12 coins on route to me via PO/all from December/ November Auctions. The mail is very SLOW these days.
Fel Temps are so much fun. Here are mine: Galley: Hut: C-II horseman And my best horseman of all time:
Excellent addition @maridvnvm ! It did haha (^_^) Been busy with school, and this semester is going to kick my but but I hope to get back into focusing more on collecting soon. A neat one! I got one similar, though in worse condition recently!
I did a quick head count and this brought my Constantius II FEL TEMP horsemen from Antioch to 27! I have yet to total up the number of FEL TEMPs across all the mints and all the types. I even have two more hut types winging their way to me at the moment. The style of the Antioch mints is the one that seems to have the greatest appeal and they seem to have employed skilled engravers. I have a few examples that I have been lucky enough to obtain over the few years that I have been chasing these coins that to my eye illustrate all that is good about the output of that mint. The OP coin comes from the first issue from Antioch (identified by the * in the left field). These issues come with the two reverse types referred to as reaching and clutching with the OP coin being the reaching type. RIC gives these reaching and clutching types two separate entries. I thought that I would take the opportunity to share two coins from the next issue of Antioch (Gamma in left field) to demonstrate why I like these. Obv:– D N CONSTANTIVS P F AVG, Pearl diademed, draped, cuirassed, bust right Rev:– FEL TEMP REPARATIO, Helmeted soldier to left, shield on left arm, spearing falling horseman; shield on ground at right. Horseman is bearded and falls forward reaching towards emperor (type FH3) Minted in Antioch (Gamma | _ //ANS). A.D. 350-355 Reference:- RIC VIII, Antioch 132. Obv:- DN CONSTAN - TIVS P F AVG, Pearl diademed, draped and cuirassed bust right Rev:- FEL TEMP RE - PARATIO, Helmeted soldier to left, shield on left arm, spearing falling horseman; shield on ground at right. Horseman is bearded and falls forward clutching horse's neck (type FH4) Minted in Antioch. (Gamma | _ //ANB). A.D. 350-355 Reference:- RIC VIII, Antioch 135 Over the next few years the size of the flans decreased dramatically and thus the canvas for the engraver became smaller and quality drops off.
Thanks for sharing your examples. I find that Antioch has excellent reverses but the portraits sometimes have that flat shovel-face look that is more of a personal preference (I think it’s neat, but not necessarily beautiful) nicomedia seems to have some rather elegant portraits Buttttt you have about 10x more examples than I do
I agree that there is a lot of room for personal preference here. Antioch coins tend to be well made and easy to find in decent shape but I prefer the western mints from a style sense. Amies with a Jay Leno look: Rome was not beautiful but I find the style interesting.
I agree about Antioch's as well. I think though that my favorite portraits of FH I own from Alexandria. I think it's funny but (IMO) the best portrait I've seen was a FH from Constantinople.
Neither Constantinople nor Alexandria strike me as consistant one way or the other but each has a sense of long nose formality that is appealing on some dies. Constantinople Alexandria
There is indeed quite a bit of variability. I seem to see more consistent "long noses" from Alexandria but more variability from Constantinople, Cyzicus noses can seem to follow too Alexandria Constantinople Cyzicus