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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;red_spork, post: 2569916, member: 74282&quot;]I was recently scrolling through recent listings on MA-Shops when I happened upon the following coin. While the seller had cataloged it as a standard Rome mint anonymous victoriatus, I quickly recognized the style to be closer to that of the <a href="http://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=314799" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=314799" rel="nofollow">Cr. 92/1a &quot;CROT&quot; series victoriatus</a>, a rare issue that is traditionally thought to have been minted at a military mint near the city of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crotone" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crotone" rel="nofollow">Croton</a> in Southern Italy. When I looked closer, however, I found quite a surprise: the usual &quot;CROT&quot; on the reverse was nowhere to be seen. I didn&#039;t remember having ever seen a similar example in any of the auction catalogs I have and after searching specifically for the type I still didn&#039;t see one in any of the big RR sales, so I consulted the <a href="http://stevebrinkman.ancients.info/anonymous/AnonymousVictoriatii.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://stevebrinkman.ancients.info/anonymous/AnonymousVictoriatii.html" rel="nofollow">Anonymous Victoriati identification guide</a>, which confirmed what I had been thinking and before much longer had placed an order.</p><p><br /></p><p>While the stylistic similarities such as the bust of Jupiter, the long, slender figure of Victory and in particular, the rendering of Victory&#039;s wings suggest that the dies for this issue were very likely cut by the engraver of many of the dies of the signed &quot;CROT&quot; issue, there is one difference between the two issues that I haven&#039;t quite come up with a satisfying explanation of, and that is the differences in the trophy between the two issues. The fully-anonymous examples, like mine, always have a trophy featuring a skirt below the shield, whereas the signed &quot;CROT&quot; issues consistently have a trophy with greaves below the shield. The best explanation I can come up with is that maybe these coins are simply two separate issues where a second set of dies had to be cut months or years after the first set and the same engraver was used but a different coin was his prototype. Most likely there&#039;s no way of knowing but it is interesting to think about.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]555597[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Roman Republic AR Victoriatus(3.12g). Anonymous(style of &quot;CROT&quot; series). ca. 211-208 B.C. Uncertain mint(traditionally, Croton). Laureate head of Jupiter right. Border of dots / Victory standing right, crowning trophy with wreath. ROMA in exergue. Line border. Crawford 92/1b</p><p><br /></p><p>Please share anything relevant![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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