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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Gavin Richardson, post: 3013953, member: 83956&quot;]I just received this coin that I bought on eBay a few weeks ago. I got it because of what appears to be a Latin cross control mark on the SOLI INVICTO reverse. Typically, the Latin cross as a control mark appears only on issues from Ticinum, though this one is from Rome (RP in the exergue). 19 mm. 2.88 g.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]747952[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>It is common for this Rome issue to have an X in the left field under the “R” control mark. Therefore, I thought that this “cross” might actually be a poorly executed “X.” However, this control mark seems pretty intentionally perpendicular, suggesting to me that the mark is an intentional cross.</p><p><br /></p><p>I have one question for the board: <span style="color: #660033"><b>Do you think that this control mark really is an intentional Latin cross or just a bad X? Is the cross an attested control mark for these issues from Rome?</b></span></p><p><br /></p><p>Oops. I guess that’s two questions.</p><p><br /></p><p>If it indeed is a cross, then the coin raises the question of whether there’s a Christian die engraver in this workshop using the cross as a control mark, or whether the cross has no meaningful religious significance and is just a way of marking a particular run of coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>And now for the kicker, which I will discourse on later in this thread: I have some mild doubts about the authenticity of this coin. I bid on this coin and then threw in some lowball bids on 5 others from this Slovenian seller and won 4. I’m fairly certain one of them is a fake, which casts doubt on the entire lot.</p><p><br /></p><p>But one thing at a time. A cross or not?[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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