I have just acquired this Florianus which I paid £25 for....it was covered in green deposits and I cleaned it sympathetically. But.........oddly the TIA is missing? I know there is a rough patch, where some minor green deposits were where the TIA should be and the A can be seen faintly, but all other letters are very clear? odd one. There is no suggestion of mounting as the coin was in hoard found state.
The reason I ask is that I see some roughness at the bottom of the bust that suggests the flan was not smoothed due to a weak strike in that area. The axis makes sense to propose at least a weak strike, but there may be other factors.
Huh? ... Well, there may have been some sort of repair done in that area ... hmmm, that is odd, eh? (oh, but that certainly is a nice new coin though => congrats!!) I only own one Florianus coin ... Florianus - Antoninianus 276 AD Diameter: 24 mm Weight: 4.2 grams Obverse: IMP CM ANN FLORINVS AVG; draped, cuirassed and radiate bust right Reverse: PRO-VIDEN D-EOR /KA G; Providentia holding two standards and Sol holding globe, standing vis-a-vis, star between them Reference: RIC 114 Other: rare legend => Antoniniani with the full family name (in german its gentiliz, can't find the proper english translation) ANNIVS are more rare than those with the legend IMP C FLORIANVS AVG or IMP C M AN FLORIANVS P AVG
certainly no modern repair.....it was in hoard found state, ie. green residue when I acquired it. Possibly a weak strike on that edge as JA suggests, but the beading at the die edge is still raised, so I am not sure.
The area on the obverse that backed up the TIA region is equally devoid of detail suggesting the coin was struck unevenly. You have a good strong ear and crown but no detail in the drapery on the bust. Is the flan very thin in that part? Letters sometimes disappear due to a filled die (junk in the die preventing striking) but being on both sides makes me suspect either a thin spot on the flan or an uneven strike.
Not thin Doug, but I suspect an uneven strike was the culprit from what JA and you have to say. Lack of detail in the drapery is certainly very obvious on an otherwise well struck coin.
Very nice even missing part of the legend. A scarce emperor and you got it at such a good price. I should be so lucky!
Sometimes we forget how hard it must have been to make these things. Not only did they have to contend with modern .inting issues, but lack of uniformity like strike evenness and flan thickness at times were culprits. I was just looking at some tetrarchy coins with individual letters missing....weird. On this I would guess strike unevenness as well.
This denarius is missing two letters between the E and V (VA), has a pair of strong letters followed by missing IMPXI. I have been assuming this is a case of filled die where foreign material (grease?, mud?, blood?) got into those letters and prevented the metal from entering. This image is from one of my grading pages. http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/grade2.html
