A coin with a hole!! Why???

How did they get a raised flan on both sides of the hole?

 

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How can you tell if a hole is modern?

 

How can you tell if a hole is modern?

Traces of sharp swarf around the hole. Modern to me is the last hundred years but I'd say the holed coin was holed far more recently than that.

 

I suspect the hole is ancient.

 

No ancient would drill a big hole in a coin. Simple reason, the coin would be underweight and useless for commerce, sellers would just reject it as they'd not be getting the proper weight of silver. The hole also appears perfectly round and evenly tapered, an artifact of the age of machines.

 

We're talking about people who created the Coliseum, The Pont du Gard Aqueduct, and Mausoleum of Hadrian. I'm sure they were able to manage a near circle at 4 mm.
This is a somewhat informative article on reasons, possible reasons, and mystery holed ancients both of antiquity and the modern era: http://www.forumancientcoins.com/moonmoth/holed_coins.html

 

Ancients did hole coins all the way back to the ancient greeks. Coins were holed for a variety of reasons, attaching to walls in temples as votive offerings, to wear around their necks etc. The interior of this hole looks convincingly ancient. The ancients has drills, tools etc.

Here is a page all about ancient holes in ancient coins:-

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/moonmoth/holed_coins.html

 

^ Great minds.

 

I have a Quintillus that was holed I believe in antiquity. The hole is more like a square, similar to nails of long ago.

QUINTILLUS
Antoninianus
OBVERSE: IMP CM AVR CL QVINTILLVS AVG, radiate, draped, cuirassed bust right
REVERSE: PAX AVGVSTI, Pax standing left, holding olive branch and transverse sceptre, A in left field
Struck at Rome, 270 AD
2.2g, 20mm
RIC 26

 

More people replied to this thread than there are coins of this type known. No?

 

This is the most interesting coin I've seen around here in a while. Can Doug or maridvnvm post examples of the other few known? And maybe the early issues of Severus from Alexandria for comparison?

 

The amount of learning and fun one can get out of a "cheap" coin is immeasurable.

Awesome piece Martin!!

 

Perhaps afantiques accidentally answered iamtiberius' question ...

=> perhaps the ancient dude drove a small nail through the coin and then carefully and methodically worked the nail until the hole began to get larger and larger, slowly mounding the metal on the sides of the hole and causing the hole to have "a raised flan on both sides of the hole" ... oh, without losing any of the coin's precious metal-weight?

... just a thought

 

It hurts me a little that there is more interest in the hole than the coin. My first page on the type was lumped with the other Alexandrian 'new discoveries' in 1998.
http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/feac74per.html
When I got mine, I was aware of three but there have been a lot since then (I really don't have a number but ten seems possible). There may be as many of the other type with Consecratio reverse but what seems like a lifetime obverse (very unusual). I'll never have one of those because they are so well known in the trade as special items. The Libertas can show up as a sleeper.

Curtis Clay is the expert on these now that Roger Bickford-Smith is gone. Roger's 1994 pamphlet/article showed the Consecratio and mentioned but did not illustrate the Libertas.


Curtis believes the coin may be in preparation for a visit to the city by Commodus in 192. I see the possibility that both types are postumous possibly dating to a time when the mint did not know who to back between Septimius and Pescennius. Alexandria mint coins of Pescennius Niger are turbo-rare so the decision did not take long. I don't see how we will ever know. My tendency to accept the Commodus as first of the bunch is partly due to the very odd use of R for both B and P on the reverse. The Alexandria Pertinax denarii are more standardly inscribed but I see no proof that the Pertinax coins were lifetime and may have been issued when the city was 'confused' as to who would be worth supporting in the civil war. Septimius was very hard on cities that made the wrong choice so Alexandria got credit for being correct from the start even if a few coins to the contrary were made. Perhaps Septimius never knew about them???

The whole idea of a denarius mint at Alexandria started in 1921 by Laffranchi who noted the (now) obvious stylistic comparison of tetradrachms and denarii. By the time of the publication of volume V of the British Museum Catalog, most people accepted it but the editors still placed a (?) after the city name. The idea of Alexandria mint coins for Pertinax, Albinus and Commodus came to me from Bickford-Smith but I have no proof one way or the other if it was original to him.

I really have not kept up since Roger died. Recognition of the mints became common among quality dealers in the early 2000's and the prices pushed me out of the market for the most part. Roger Bickford-Smith told me before he died that he estimated the total population for all types of Alexandria mint denarii in the neighborhood of 300. Today, I suspect that is off by a power of ten but there are many rare ones in the group. Below are a few showing the some basic styles for Septimius:


Below is a tetradrachm of Domna from year two (194) and a denarius showing the style suggesting the denarii were from that mint. I do not own a Septimius tetradrachm.

 

I was wondering how long this sentiment would surface from either Doug or Martin....since I was surprised as well after I 'cheated' and found the answer of the 'mystery' on acsearch..

Considering the turmoil of the times ,and throughout the history of the Western 'half' of the Empire with so many 'usurpers' to the throne, I can't help but wonder how many rare and unattributed varieties there are still 'out there' as local/regional mint officials hedged their bets on the eventual winner of the quest for the 'purple'. I can image the frantic melting and reminting as the winner stood alone and had scores to settle...

 

All Nigers are rare, no matter which mint, with or without "justus".
Brings us back to the point, that RIC rarity ratings aren't always dependable. Every museum in europe having a copy does not mean a coin was actually common.

 

Sorry Doug ... yah, sadly I don't know enough about Martin's sweet new addition ... but the "hole" (well, I could relate to that, my friend)