I picked up the coin below recently, at a surprisingly low price (probably because of the green incrustations). I bought the coin because of the special mintmark. I remember there was a discussion about this special mintmark recently, but I can't seem to find it. Can anybody point me to this discussion please?
The Romans seem to have been very fond of word/letter play, which we see in a variety of palindromes, acrostics and ligatures of overlaid letters seen on coins, jewelry, etc. It'd be interesting to know if this "eros" ligature is seen anywhere else in non-numismatic context, or only here as an issue mark on these coins? It seems a bit too clever/creative to have been made up at the mint as an issue mark. The basic explanation is that this greek ligature can be expanded as "eros" (ἔρως), meaning "love", which in Latin would be "amor". We then have the palindrome roma <=> amor. The roma-amor palindrome seems intended to evoke/mirror the back-to-back temple(s) of romae aternae and venus felix in the center of Rome, where venus felix is venus in her aspect of love, often depicted accompanied by cupid, modeled after aphrodite. Thanks to mauseus on FORVM who originally drew my attention the temple link in an old thread there I'd started on this subject. The "eros" issue mark is also seen on the vota types from the same issue as @Tejas Romae Aeterae type, as well as the following one, but given the allusion to Romae Aeternae was perhaps chosen with this in mind.
Thanks a lot everybody. I found the earlier thread as well: Thread on Eros mintmark I'm fascinated by this coin and its mintmark. It is interesting, that the palindrome is made up of Greek letters instead of Latin. Maybe Greek was increasingly the language of those who adhered to the old pantheon. In this case the reference to Eros/Amor may have been interpreted as a reference to the old gods at a time when Christianity was taking hold. However, maybe the palindrome was common knowledge and everybody understood its meaning and interpreted as a love of Rome or love of the Emperor. I think one possibility is that the Eros/Amor mintmark stands in for Eros/Amor himself, who could not be depicted for lack of space. The Solidus below shows Victoria inscribing a shield, which Eros/Amor is holding holding up. On the folles, Roma is inscribing the shield and Eros/Amor is supporting the scene symbolically through the ligature in the exergue. Not my coin: https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=1795468 I noticed that the Eros-mintmark can command a significant premium. I guess I was lucky that the auction house did not point out the special mintmark and that nobody else noted it.
The special mintmark was introduced for the celebration of the quindecennalia (Roma has XV on the shield) and used probably until a new coinage announced the incoming vicennalia.
