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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 2305559, member: 19463&quot;]I am incapable of short answers.&nbsp; At the end of their time, antoniniani had a small silver content of about 4.7% and were washed with silver.&nbsp; The post reform radiates had no silver and were not issued washed.&nbsp; They are about the same size.&nbsp; If there is a difference, the post reform coins tend to be a tad thicker and smaller diameter but seeing this would require laying out a bunch of coins.&nbsp; The small alloy difference does seem to me to make them wear a bit differently but the difference is told by looking them up in catalogs like RIC.&nbsp; MOST of the last antoniniani had the alloy mark XXI somewhere on the reverse while none of the radiates did (since they were not made of that alloy).&nbsp; Most post reform radiates had a mintmark in the middle of the reverse field (there are exceptions).&nbsp; There are post reform folles (the larger coins) that were made of the XXI alloy and so marked but this question is only about the radiates.&nbsp; For the most part, coins of the Tetrarchs with a radiate crown with XXI or a mintmark in exergue are antoniniani while those without XXI and with a mintmark in the field are post reform radiates. There are exceptions to every rule.&nbsp; No post reform radiate was silvered at the mint but modern collectors trying to upgrade their coins might have done anything. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Pre reform antoninianus with XXI and part silvering.&nbsp; In this case the letters in the field are for officina 9 as used at Antioch.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]463784[/ATTACH] </p><p>We should mention that starting with Aurelian who started the standard alloy, some issues were marked KA instead of XXI.&nbsp; KA is Greek for XXI or 21.&nbsp; Fortunately by the time of Diocletian the KA issues had stopped.The ones at the end that could be confusing would be post reform coins of Cyzicus of the first officina which would have KA in the field.&nbsp; I don&#039;t have one to show but below is a similar K delta post reform radiate.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]463779[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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