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Message:: [QUOTE="dougsmit, post: 2813530, member: 19463"]Sometimes we have errors that are errors but some are more signs that the mint workers were Latin as a second language at best and possibly just illiterate copying from some original.  Greek speakers often had trouble with the letter R which does not exist in Greek.  The #1 'error' in my book is the Septimius Severus Emesa mint reverse which regularly reads SPQR OPTIMO PBINCIPI substituting B for R but only in one case.  These are common. [ATTACH=full]658982[/ATTACH] Much more scarce are the coins that spell the word correctly.[ATTACH=full]658984[/ATTACH] There are other coins of this mint that make the same substitution.  Here is FORT BEDVC for FORT REDVC.  Again the substitution only hit the second R with the first being normal.[ATTACH=full]658986[/ATTACH] My favorite is this Domna with two B's: VENEBI VICTBICI for VENERI VICTRICI.[ATTACH=full]658989[/ATTACH] Two dies show the same error of L for the second I but the other two I's are normal. INVICTO IMP[ATTACH=full]658991[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]658992[/ATTACH] Sometimes we catch our errors and fix them.  Here is a C cut over the error V.[ATTACH=full]658993[/ATTACH] There must be thousands of such errors.[/QUOTE]