Hi all! I just bought this at NSB Auctions, and thought I'd make a post about it It is a follis of Maximinus II, on an interesting undersized and serrated flan. This coin appears to be a variety of RIC 147b from Alexandria mint, although this coin has X above the B (rather than the other way round). Might this coin have been overstruck on a serrated coin from the Seleucid Empire, such as this one (not my coin)? My coin weighs 4.1g and is 20.1mm in diameter, while the closest Seleucid coin weighs about 4g, but is only 16ishmm in diameter, although it's possible that my coin was flattened when striking. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated! Also, make sure to share any oddities and overstruck coins you have in your collection Thanks!
That is really interesting! Both the coin and the theory. I could see it possibly being overstruck. The legends on the obverse aren't all on the flan which could be because the host coin was smaller than what the die was intended for. I am far from an expert though haha. I really like serrated coins. I don't have one yet though. Need to fix that. Thanks for sharing!
I would guess it was altered to be serrated. There are a few of these around which supposedly were altered in antiquity to be game tokens or something related
I agree with Aleph. Seleukid "bottle cap" coins gained their serrations from the flan mold, giving a distinctive shape of the serrations and a certain contour of the flan, both of which are not matched by the OP coin. The OP coin's serrations are more finely and artfully done than on some of the similarly altered "serrated" coins shown on CT. It's an interesting coin regardless .
you find a lot of these LRB's that have been altered for use for other purposes, often as weights. https://www.cointalk.com/threads/lrb-converted-into-byzantine-weight.384002/#post-7785797
Thanks for ideas, everyone! I assumed that the serrations on my coin looked different because it had been struck again, flattening the coin. One of the reasons why I thought it might be overstruck is that the flan appears very small, which I don't see much of for this issue. I'll see how thick it is when I receive it, and post more pictures then
The flan is small because pieces were removed. It is not overstruck, these modified coins are actually fairly common. Many were used as weights, others token, gaming pieces... etc. I casually collect these, below are some of mine.