Attributing a common Valens AE3 in RIC IX

I was trying to pin down the RIC number for a Gloria Romanorum from Valens. I have read the book a few times but can't figure out the difference(s) between RIC IX 16b, 26b and 31! The exergue of my coin is TES, there's an A on the left and a Chi-Rho on the right, so mintmark variety xix, but how does one know if it was issued during 1st (16b), 2nd (26b) or 3rd (31) period. I feel like I'm missing a key piece of info. Cohen apparently didn't see enough of a difference and lumped them together under "C.11". I looked at Wildwinds which shows 2 or more mintmark varieties for each "period", (though none match my mintmark), and I still don't see how to distinguish between the three. I know ya'll like to see pics, but in this case, it hardly seems necessary.

 

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My understanding is that the the 3 periods are referenced separately to reflect the changing members of the imperial college (eg. Gratian appears in the second issue, no. 26), however there is not enough evidence to firmly allocate the myriad of mintmarks to specific issues. The note at the end of the table of mintmarks suggests to me that the third issue was based on limited evidence (noting Volume IX was written in 1933!), which means that you could use the presence or absence of marks for Gratian for deciding whether a coin belongs to the first (16) or second (26) issue.

PS which means mark xix could be catalogued as 26 b

 

Thanks, that seems to make sense. I wish the book would just make it a little clearer. I guess I needed to read between the lines a bit more. I find it interesting since it has two chi-rhos. One on the standard and one on the field.