Why do coins of Volusian often have odd spellings? The normal triad seems to be Galussiano, Calussiano, and Volusiano. Coins of Antioch get pretty extreme, spelling the name as LLOVNANOC, LLOVNIL, COVNAHI, etc. What gives? Obligatory coin picture:
Ugh… these drive me crazy. I have 4 or 5 of them that have been sitting on a tray for years because I haven’t been confident in who is on the coin. Some argue that these are Volusian, others say Valerian. The legends are so corrupt, who knows. here’s another thread on these: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/help-needed-with-this-volusianus-from-antiochia.392244/
The entire shop must have hired the worst celators in the ancient world because almost ALL Antioch issues are garbled beyond belief
I do notice, however, that there me be a local accent/dialect thing with the name starting with either G, C, or V sounds.
In some dialects a "G" can sound like a "W"; In some areas of Italy today the word for gloves "guanti" is pronounced more like "wandi". I don't know if this reason holds up for Antioch of 2000 years ago, but the phenomenon does happen. I was told it was a holdover from the Samnites. For that same reason in some dialects a "D" becomes an "R"sound.