Hello everyone. So i went through my couple of coins i dont have in my display, and decided to some probing on the coin of Probus i have. It's a antoninianus coin with silvering on it, nice bust en reverse. (At least i think so.) The seller i got it from gave as reference RIC 767, and i decided to see if i could find other examples on online databases, because i thought some of the lettering of my example looked a bit funny. When checking the reference on wildwinds, i couldn't match the mintmark of mine with the ones in that database. So i went further, even consindering the possiblity of a fake. Acsearch has 4 examples similar to mine (total number of examples are 529 when looking for Soli Invicto Probus). And i couldn't find it in the fake coin reports database. So, does it seems that i have a fairly scarce coin of Probus? Is it a fake? The combination i looked for was Soli invicto with Sol, and mintmarkt XXIVI. The reverse of my example is Soli invicto, in a quadriga, riding lift, holding a whip and a raised hand. Of this coin, acsearch shows 4 examples (searching for PROBVS Soli invicto XXIVI). Three other examples are with Sol in a spread quadriga. Wildwinds only seems to have this one, with reference RIC 767, XXIVI, in their database. The types listed in acsearch have three bust types: two (including mine) with radiate and mantled bust left, holding eagle-tipped scepter; one the same but holding a spear; one radiate, draped, and cuirassed bust right. So, any advice one this one? I don't know a lot about coins of Probus. Am i missing something? And perhaps i will put this one in my display after all! Here it is: Probus. Antoninianus. Siscia. 21 mm, 3,44 gr. IMP C M AVR PROBVS P F AVG, Radiate and mantled bust left, holding eagle-tipped scepter / SOLI INVICTO / XXIVI, Sol driving quadriga left, raising hand and holding reins and whip RIC 767?
That is a nice coin Bing. What is that mintmark? Looks a bit like the horses had a little accident...
A double die match of your coin is shown here (scroll down a little bit): https://probvs.net/probvs/R767/R767.html Given references: RIC 767; Alföldi type 76, n° 150 Only image: https://probvs.net/probvs/R767/R767.220202.AT.JPG
You're confused because multiple coins are assigned RIC 767. Here's the listing: You'll see that this coin has obverse inscription 1, which is IMP C M AVR PROBVS P F AVG: And there are three main varieties of bust -- A, G, and H. These are tabulated here: Yours is H -- Radiate bust l., in imperial mantle, holding scepter surmounted by eagle. There are many different marks in the exergue, too, corresponding to XXI (the percent silver -- 1:20) and officinas from P (primum) to VII, and also one other coin with T in the field. You could call yours RIC 767H.
I think you may be misreading the Roman numeral. Consider XXIIII. Or, as RC said, XXI VI run together as a single string.
I have it identified as: PROBUS Antoninianus OBVERSE: IMP PROBVS AVG, radiate mantled bust left holding eagle-tipped sceptre REVERSE: SOLI INVICTO, Sol in galloping quadriga left, R-thunderbolt-B in ex. Struck at Rome, 275-6 AD 4.2g, 24mm RIC 202
thanks everybody for the help, for the link to the probus page and the RIC listing. And nice looking coins, thanks for sharing.
XXI VI is correct for officina six of a mint (Siscia) that used ordinals P S T Q V VI VII. They had to use Roman numerals for quinta, sexta and septima since S and Q had already been used for 2nd and 4th. The Romans did not understand concepts like spaces between words in the way we do today so XXIVI made sense. So did VIXXI as shown below.
My variant is also from Siscia XXIS OBV.: IMP C M AVR PROBVS PF AVG Radiate bust left in imperial mantle, holding sceptre surmounted by eagle. REV.: SOLI INVICTO Sol in quadriga galloping left, right hand raised, left holding whip.
Thank you for the reply dougsmith. I did not know that so i read more info online. Educational indeed!
