Why on earth did I pay $35 for this coin? I'm a sucker for odd objects. And the seller had no idea what was so unusual about this, it was just priced as a typical Licinius AE3. To me this is a $25 coin tops, but as I say, I am a sucker for weird stuff. It was struck with a broken die, resulting in what you can see in the images. Very cool for me, uber boring for others. I could be wrong, it may not be a broken die but some other error, but I think so, if one can see it in person... Feel free to show your mint errors or other broken dies.
The obverse of this one has die damage affecting Serapis' modius and Gordian's name in the legend. It's present on numerous coins struck with this die. See, for example the Wildwinds specimen:
Nice catch @Ken Dorney ! Looks like The Emperor must have gotten bad wine, and is blowing chow. Here are a couple die breaks: 20-Asses: (Similar to a Roman AR Heavy Denarius / Didrachm) Etruria, Populonia 3rd Century BC Silver 20-Asses 8.1g, ovoid 16.6mm x 20mm Obv: Facing head of Metus, hair bound with a diadem, X:X below Rev: blank Sambon 47; HN Italy 152 10-Asses: (Similar to a Roman AR Denarius) Etruria Populonia AR 10 Asses 20mm 4.21g 211-206 BC Obv: Male Hd Rev: Blank die break
My Claudius As had a cracked die strike it. You can see the crack right behind the bust of the emperor.
Perhaps the OP looks different in hand, but in the photo the coin looks like it has a piece of corrosion adhered to it, as if it had been buried next to another coin, perhaps a billon antoninianus that had a lot of material leach out from it by the soil. But you have the coin in front of you, and I don't, so you can probably interpret its history better than I can.
I would never have thought of a broken die, it just looks like something is stuck to it. My eye was focusing on the flan crack that runs under the border but not through it, not sure why but that is what I find unusual about the OP coin.
Oh crud... Now that someone had pointed out the obvious, I feel pretty foolish. It does indeed look like an adhesion to the surface rather than a die break. I guess sometimes we see what we want rather than reality. Ah well. Its still a nice topic for a thread.
Nice and interesting topic whatsoever. Here's my coin of Gratian that I had posted long time ago. There's a double-head of the Emperor. A double strike? Usually there's a crack between the "Two" heads. Correct me if I'm wrong.
