Revisiting an old Favorite - Tracing the Quintillus engraver

This has been nagging at me for some time, but hadn't attempted to put it into words until now.

If you were to ask me to post my top 10 favorite Roman coins, this Quintillus would 100% always make the list, ever since I purchased it in a group lot in 2017


Obv: IMP C M AVR QVINTILLVS AVG, Radiate draped bust right
Rev: PROVIDEN AVG, Providentia standing left, holding cornucopia and baton over globe at feet.
Siscia Mint(?)
According to Helvetica's spreadsheet, it ought to be (based on obverse legend) a bust variant on RIC V 71.

It's a lovely coin, sporting one of the best portraits of this ephemeral emperor on his non-gold coinage.

Here's another example from Siscia, either 71 or 72


And an Aurelian from Siscia, which appears to be engraved by the same hand


But going back to my original point, Quintillus' gold coinage (which is extraordinarily rare)...

(Image by NAC)

All of Quintillus' gold coinage has the same obverse legend as my antoninianus (IMP C M AVR QVINTILLVS AVG) and I'll be darned if the portraits don't look almost identical, save for the headwear. I don't think it is much of a stretch to claim these are the work of the same engraver


Only one problem - all (5-10?) Aureii of Quintillus come from Milan, not Siscia.

I was also able to find one example of an Aurelian early-reign aureus which bears a haunting similarity -

(Image by Roma - https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=5805480 )

I'd welcome any thoughts - at the moment I'm torn between:
1) Two artists who studied together
2) Artist from Milan traveled to Siscia
3) Quintillus aureii aren't from Milan, but are from Siscia (although I think findspot evidence pins them at Milan)

 

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purdy neat..he/she was an artist!

 

A very nice coin indeed!

Here is my Quintillus from Milan:


I don’t find the style too off with the aureus, but I see the similarities with the Siscia dies too.
Have you considered the possibility that the dies were produced in Milan and sent to Siscia? Or the other way around, for that matter.

 

Interesting post! I personally don’t think your Siscia coin and the Milan gold portrait look very similar… but that’s just my snap opinion.

However I do have a few coin portraits that I do believe were done by the same hand as created yours (maybe even same die?).

Quintillus - Siscia - RIC V-1 79

And these two that may not be from the same artist but are of a style unique to Siscia of this time, so who knows! They also somewhat look like you Aurelian above.

Aurelian - Siscia - RIC V 192t

Claudius II - Siscia - RIC V-1 191

I think I have a few others too unphotographed. I’ll look for them!

 

The OP coin is really great.
I have 34 Quintillus Antoniniani.
This is what I call a typical Milan portrait of Quintillus:




Here is a nice portrait, but I'm not sure about the mint. Siscia?




Another nice portrait, but I don't know the mint:



Possibly Rome:



Siscia:

 

My prettiest Quintillus. Nice fringe toning with an excellent engraving.

 

Pretty nice acquisitions Finn. I can’t tell for sure if they were engraved by the same hand though. I have two coins from Lyon, two different Emperors, but I’m quite sure they’re from the same artist. What do you think ?

 

That's a great Quintillus. The portraits of Quintillus are sometimes really very impressive. (As soon as you mentioned it, I remembered the lovely portrait on one recently posted -- and now posted again here -- by @Orange Julius , which I believe was described as an ebay snack! To me, those look like they're by the same artist.)

Regarding the artist, and your three examples (the Ant, the Sicscia Aureus, and the Aurelian Aureus) ...

There are some distinct similarities, but I would want to compare as many high quality examples from different dies as possible, and really examine them closely. (Despite short coinage/reign, there are a lot of dies, which makes it tough.)

Are there any artistic or technical similarities that seem peculiar to these dies? (To be convincing, I always prefer if someone can point to specific details/techniques shared by two dies, but differ from those by other artists.)

A good place to look might be their "handwriting"/epigraphic style, if that's the right term. Judging from the legends, I would think those two Aureii are from different engravers (unless it's possible different engravers did legends and portraits, though I don't remember ever hearing of that).

Although the gold Quintillus has different "handwriting" from yours, I do notice that the Aurelian Aureus and your Quintillus Ant seem to have letters constructed very similarly. (E.g., the "A" with an almost open top, like an "H"; the upward diagonal stroke of the lower horizontal on the "R"... I see nothing particularly inconsistent.) The similarity between those coins is a good catch.

Here's a favorite Quintillus of mine:

Roman Imperial. Quintillus (Augustus, 270 CE) Billon Antoniniaus (2.68g, 17.5mm, 12h). Rome mint, 270.

Obverse: IMP C M AVR QVINTILLVS AVG. Radiate and cuirassed bust right.
Reverse: CONCORDIA AVG / Δ in r. field. Concordia standing l., sacrificing over altar and holding double cornucopia.

Reference: RIC V 13 (corr. cuirassed, not draped); OCRE RIC 13 (11 ex., all public, 3 ANS); RIC Online 1146 (49 ex., all public colls.); Cohen VI (p. 166) 17 (corr., "drapé ou cuirassé"); ERIC II (p. 620) 49 (corr. cuirassed [B4] not draped [B7], r. field not ex.); Normanby 1159 (see also 1156; 1156-1161 all similar CONCORDIA AVG types).

Provenance: Ex- Naville Numismatics (w/ Stack’s) Auction 35, Lot 717 (London, 29 October 2017), from the Clain-Stefanelli Collection, w/ Elvira’s hand-written tag (collection was also built with Vladimir [1914-1982] and inherited by their numismatist-son Andrew [1945-2014]); Ancient & Medieval Coins Canada Auction 2, Lot 210 (Kelowna, 9 November 2019), from the Orfew Collection.​

 

I have 2 Quintillus coins and one is a mystery for me





For the bottom one I'm pretty sure it's RIC V 29 (Rome), with Providentia with scepter and baton.
But I am not convinced at all about the top coin. They seem very similar (the missing legend adds to the mystery) - Providentia with scepter and baton, ς in the field.
But the styles are very different and I am tempted to say the first is RIC V Quintillus 73 ? Siscia? with corn ears in left hand?
Ironically the top coin was one of the first ancient coins I ever got, much before deciding to start an ancient coins collection.

 

I've noticed these portraits from Siscia are very carefully engraved, in quite a consistent style. Yours is RIC 1253(temp), and a particularly lovely example.

I don't find the cross-emperor or cross-mint comparisons very convincing. Milan's first issues also have a nice style, though different, and matching the aurei.

(Anybody else having trouble accessing ric.mom.fr? It seems like it bumps me off after I do "too many" searches today, quite annoying!)

Mine is Rome mint, the style is pretty ho-hum:

Small correction. I know from afar it seems like Canada = Toronto, but AMCC is actually in BC, the interior city of Kelowna. That's 4000 km from Toronto.

 

The engraver himself doesn't have to travel. Either the coins or the dies can be made in one location for use in another. There are examples of coins struck in Rome for use in Syria, for instance. And there are examples of provincial dies shared between two cities.

 

Funny, I was reading about this very discussion earlier this evening, but related to mints in northern Anatolia:


From Mørkholm: «Early Hellenistic coinage from the accession of Alexander to the peace of Apameia»

 

Thanks much, @Severus Alexander ! Wonder where I got that from... Well, I'm glad to be able to remove that error from a bunch of my records now!

 

My only Quintillus is this Rome mint SECVRIT AVG:

 

Thanks all for the thoughts! And lovely Quintillus ants all around!

@Curtis, the main thing that drew me to wonder if they were engraved by the same hand is

1) The eyes, in particular are very lifelike for the period, and give the impression of an emotive/pensive gaze, rather than the more or less lifeless stare typical of the period.
2) The jaw is unusually large and strong for Quintillus portraits (I imagine him to look like your archetypal skinny hillbilly on most coins). The chin is still jutting, but less so than on most other mints.
3) I had considered the nose to be the same, but I will admit it is a bit smaller and less pointed on the aureus
4) I was more familiar with the "typical" Milan style, as demonstrated by @svessien and @Tejas but as @Severus Alexander pointed out, there are also antoninianii in the general style of his aureii, too.

And @Orange Julius that is a lovely Quintillus! Definitely the same artist, although I don't think it is the same die - note the top Radiate spike on mine points backwards while yours points almost straight up. I did have to look pretty close to spot differences though!

Another thought I had that I felt didn't fit into the OP on the subject of style was this Probus, which reminds me of the Quintillus in ways I struggle to articulate- maybe its the eyes?


This is from the Rome mint, but in a way looks more like @Curtis' beautiful Quintillus at second glance- I guess only 15 years apart so *possibly* the same artist, assuming he survived the 270-71 revolt?

 

I think I have a similar portrait attributed to Rome... but mine has better sideburns.


Quintillus - FORTVNA REDVX - Rome - RIC V-1 20

I have a very similar coin (but ugly) to this one too but without the delta field mark!


And finally, I'd like to show @Finn235 's coin and mine side by side. You have to admit that they look like they were made by the same talented engraver. I've always said that the artistic skill was still there at the time, it was the production quality that went down the toilet!

 

My thoughts too

I only have 3/4 of à Quintillus ant to show, from Milan according to my data



Q

Edit : typo

 

I've never been too comfortable committing to "same artist" on any ancients and I don't know how mints have been assigned for coins of Quintillus. With those caveats, my first guess would be aligned with @John Anthony's comment: dies might easily have been created in one place and coins struck in another. A second option also seems reasonable: a traveling engraver with the mints only a few days journey from each other.

For this short lived emperor "under fire" and trying to win support from the troops and establish his legitimacy with the consecration of his brother and high volume minting of coins, both options seems reasonable to me.

Aurelian declared emperor in Sirmium - not far east of Siscia.

tiny flans, weak strikes, worn dies, but at least one great portrait artist :

Quintillus, 270, Antoninianus (Bronze, 18mm, 2.37g, 6h), Mediolanum, August-November 270.
Obv: IMP QVINTILLVS AVG, radiate, draped and cuirassed bust of Quintillus to right
Rev: CONCO EXER / T, Concordia standing front, head to left, holding signum in her right hand and cornucopiae in her left
Ref: RIC V 47

 

Wow, this is a fanastic portrait of Quintillus with the moustache and the sideburns! It looks kind of 1970s (not 270s)

 

Agreed 100%

And a random observation about Quintillus...

It doesn't seem to be the case often, but of all of the 3rd century emperors, he seems to be the only emperor over the age of ~25 who shaved any part of his face - every other emperor either had a full bushy beard, a closely manicured beard, or was a kid too young for facial hair.