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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 2980554, member: 19463&quot;]I have always liked coins with questions and that is what attracted me to the Anonymous Pagan AE4&#039;s as represented by my latest purchase (from Victor - arrived today).&nbsp; One question is if these are coins or tokens.&nbsp; Another is who issued them.&nbsp; Another is why. I&#039;ll tell a little about them but the big one is what drove me to buy twelve that most of you would consider to be the same coin.&nbsp; That I can not answer.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]733297[/ATTACH] </p><p>Those of you who like RIC numbers for your Roman coins will be distressed to know that these are not in RIC.&nbsp; That is not because they were not considered worthy but when RIC volume VI was written the prevailing scholarship dated these to the time of Julian II (vol. VIII) but when vol. VIII was written, the coins were reassigned to c.312 AD which would be in vol. VI.&nbsp; There are several types of Anonymous Pagan coins but only two are common.&nbsp; This Tyche with Apollo and a Jupiter with Victory, both from Antioch, are probably a hundred times as common as any of the others.&nbsp; My new purchase completed my set by workshop of this type; I lack one of the Jupiter/victory; I have only one coin of any other type. </p><p><br /></p><p>These small coins have been called both 1/4 and 1/5 of a nummus.&nbsp; I remain unconvinced.&nbsp; The two common Antioch coins use different mint marks.&nbsp; This one has SMA (Sacred Money of Antioch) while the Jupiter coin uses ANT.&nbsp; Why?&nbsp; I have no idea.&nbsp; Not being in RIC and omitted by people who wrote their books based on RIC limits market exposure to many collectors.&nbsp; David Vagi did list the coins in his two volume set but he does not explain the questions raised by the coins. </p><p><br /></p><p>One theory suggests that these coins were in some way associated with Christian Persecutions but exact role they played is less than certain.&nbsp; Were these coins showing a pagan god used for a sacrifice that Christians would be unwilling to perform when ordered? This possible association probably has increased demand for these coins.&nbsp; That demand is inconsistent and some dealers consider the coins special while others think of them as junk.&nbsp; To assemble the set, I paid from $6 to $100 but we see many offered at prices above that.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Antioch mint used ten officinae or workshops numbered in Greek numerals but replaced the unlucky Θ (first letter in the word for death) for nine with ΕΔ or 5+4 which adds up to nine and was very common on coins from the Pagan era.&nbsp; When Christianity was established, such superstitions were eliminated.&nbsp; The additive 9 was the best evidence that the earlier later date was incorrect.&nbsp; The coins must have been made while Antioch was using ΕΔ.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>In addition to the ten coins making the A to I officina set, I include two variations.&nbsp; Officina E (5) produced some coins with the SMA mintmark reversed and reading AMS.&nbsp; These are relative common making me believe there were several dies with the error but I have not done the research to back up that theory.&nbsp; The other error is on a coin of workshop B where the reverse right legend SANCTO is misspelled SANSTO.&nbsp; I have not seen another specimen of this one. </p><p><br /></p><p>The obverse shows the well known Tyche statue of Antioch with small swimmer below. The reverse show Apollo standing wearing a fancy decorated robe which shows detail on very few of the coins on the market.&nbsp; It is bold on my ΕΔ coin.&nbsp; In earlier days, Apollo was rarely so well dressed (if he was dressed at all). </p><p><br /></p><p>Perhaps, since the occasion for this post was the arrival of the coin to fill out the set, I should show it alone.&nbsp; Here is I.&nbsp; Thanks Victor.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]733340[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Show your Anonymous Pagans.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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