@Sabrina Fehr, welcome to CT. What is your collecting focus (if you have one)?,... how long have you been at it?,...what's in your "inventory"?...anything you would like to tell us about your collecting?
No I didn’t buy it. Someone gave it to me because they knew I liked coins. I knew it seemed off that’s probably why I couldn’t find it while researching. I’d say I’m fascinated by error coins. As well as the older the better although I just started so my collection is small and really nothing that old. I believe 1864 buffalo head is my earliest so I’m on the lookout for ancient coins. I’ve got quite a bit of coins from England and France as well as Switzerland and most of Europe. A few uncirculated gems that I thought were errors bc of the shine.
that's kool Sabrina..coins cover a large and wide swath of history...we like'em all and this is just(and the best)ancients here, but, like me, i collect 'modern' coinage too... i have coins from 2003 on back to siglos of Darius....welcome to CT..
Sounds like ancients is the way for you to go. All ancient coins were stamped by hand, and there are all kinds of fascinating errors to be found. Best of all--and unlike like modern coins where a simple doubled die can change the value of a coin from pennies to thousands of dollars--errors in ancient coins tend to make them more affordable rather than more expensive. Anyone have any cool ancient error coins to show Sabrina? I'll go first. It's a very strange flip-over double strike of a Roman fallen-horseman type from around 350 A.D. It's so weird that I can't ever say which side is the obverse and which is the reverse, so I'll call this Side A (rotated 90 degrees): This is Side B:
ERROR COINS? LOL, LOTSA Error coins in Ancients, as they were all hand made... dies, flans, striking. Lotta room for variation, and literally, NO 2 coins are alike. Here are some fun boo-boos: RR M Furius ERROR DOUBLE-STRIKE AR Den119 BC Janus Trophy Carnyx S 156 Cr 281-1 RR Clodius Pulcher T Mallius AR Den 111-110 BCE ERROR Flipover Double-Strike Roma Triga Cr 299-1b S 176 RR AR Denarius ERROR BROCKAGE Q Fabius Labeo 124 BCE - ROMA X LABEO - Incuse and reverse of obverse Cr 273-1 Syd 532 Sear 148 RR Anon AE Sextans-Hieron II Error Overstrike 214-212 BCE S1211 Cr69-6
I'm not sure I consider overstrikes to be errors but I do collect them actively. Double strikes are errors and particularly neat when the coin flipped over between strikes. By the standards of modern collectors, most ancients are errors to some degree. Septimius Severus AR denarius flipover double strike /Mars Pater.
Glenn, I think that what you have is a copy of a rare type from Lyons with a reverse legend of VICTORIA AVGVSTORV. Though rare, I have seen several unofficial issues...two from Constans below-- and an official example Constantius II A.D. 342 15mm 1.8gm CONSTANTI-VS P F AVG, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right. VICTORIA AVGVSTORV; Victory walking to left, holding wreath and palm. In ex. SLG RIC VIII Lyons 36; Bastien 43
Here is an interesting "error" on a coin of Nero: You can see the "SC" is reversed... and well as an unusual starting point for the legend. The full reverse legend is: PACE P R VBIQ PARTA IANVM CLVSIT You can see that CLVSIT (the last word of the legend) is at the 12 o'clock position - so the start of the legend is at the 2 o'clock position on this coin. I have not found another like it so far. Here is a MUCH nicer coin (that I do NOT own) showing how the legend should line up: Turn my coins reverse over and it works... Good evidence that one set of die cutters create the bust and devices - while another set of die cutters create the legends. Here one of them got it wrong...
Thanks for your input, Victor. I can clearly see elements of the VICTORIA AVGVSTORVM (VA) coin now that you've pointed them out. I can also see the soldier from the FEL TEMP (FH) reverse (highlighted below). If we are both correct, then either: 1) we have an older, VA coin overstruck on a newer FH, or 2) we have a failed attempt to overstrike an FH on a VA (notice how off-center the FH soldier is), or 3) We have a newer, barbarous VA overstrcuk on an older FH. Frankly, none of these possibilities make any sense to me. I suppose it could also be a VICTORIA AVGG/CAESS NN type from Thessalonica, 319 A.D.: There are a few places where the inscription might be readable. I'll dig the coin out and check it. Maybe that will help.
I love this coin. To my eye, the legends and SC are normal but the temple was cut upside down. Which was done first?
Doug, Types were regularly engraved first, followed by legends, as one can tell from the numerous cases where the legend breaks to make space for an intruding detail of the type, or the lettering gets smaller, or is continued in the field, to fit it into the tight space left by the type. Errors as on Clavdius' Nero As were only likely to occur with symmetrical types, which looked virtually the same upside down as right side up. That is the case with Nero's Temple of Janus type, and with two similar coins with upside down legends that come to mind: Diva Faustina II denarius with CONSECRATIO Altar type, and Nerva As with Clasped Hands type, CONCORDIA EXERCITVVM.
