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Alexandria Roman Tetradrachm - Help Please
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<p>[QUOTE="dougsmit, post: 3494892, member: 19463"]While I agree with the ID here because of the letters that show, the portrait struck me as Diocletian. Coins like this are why I avoid specimens that lack the wrong letters. A similar coin with fewer letters but including the ones definitely diagnostic would be more fun for a collector. Professional scholars have to learn them all but amateurs in it for the fun might avoid the hard ones. </p><p><br /></p><p>A big clue here, dating, narrows it down a lot. A coin dated year four can not belong to rulers that did not last that long. Those who deal mostly with photos may miss an important clue on these: size. Starting in the middle of the century (Philip or so) we see similar fabric on these tets but they get smaller as time passed. A photo of a coin of Probus, Tacitus etc. may look a bit like a Diocletian but, in hand, the later ones seem tiny. Often that makes the choices narrow down to just a couple so all we need is one significant letter. To be a Diocletian, we need a T before the IANOC that just is not there. </p><p><br /></p><p>I like the coins of Alexandria from this period but will point out that many on the market are in a condition that we should not pay much if we want the coin at all. I can see a specialist accumulating these if trying to build a complete run of the dates but people like me don't do that and save the ugly coin places in our collection for things we can't find better. I can not criticize your buying this one. I have worse (see my Volusian below).</p><p>[ATTACH=full]925621[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="dougsmit, post: 3494892, member: 19463"]While I agree with the ID here because of the letters that show, the portrait struck me as Diocletian. Coins like this are why I avoid specimens that lack the wrong letters. A similar coin with fewer letters but including the ones definitely diagnostic would be more fun for a collector. Professional scholars have to learn them all but amateurs in it for the fun might avoid the hard ones. A big clue here, dating, narrows it down a lot. A coin dated year four can not belong to rulers that did not last that long. Those who deal mostly with photos may miss an important clue on these: size. Starting in the middle of the century (Philip or so) we see similar fabric on these tets but they get smaller as time passed. A photo of a coin of Probus, Tacitus etc. may look a bit like a Diocletian but, in hand, the later ones seem tiny. Often that makes the choices narrow down to just a couple so all we need is one significant letter. To be a Diocletian, we need a T before the IANOC that just is not there. I like the coins of Alexandria from this period but will point out that many on the market are in a condition that we should not pay much if we want the coin at all. I can see a specialist accumulating these if trying to build a complete run of the dates but people like me don't do that and save the ugly coin places in our collection for things we can't find better. I can not criticize your buying this one. I have worse (see my Volusian below). [ATTACH=full]925621[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]
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Alexandria Roman Tetradrachm - Help Please
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