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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Shea19, post: 5282259, member: 90981&quot;]I&#039;m excited to share what is definitely the most interesting coin I&#039;ve bought this year.&nbsp; It is an early 7th Century follis which I believe was overstruck on a Roman provincial coin minted more than <b>300(?!)</b> years earlier.</p><p><br /></p><p>At first glance, the coin looks to be a Byzantine follis overstruck on an earlier Byzantine coin, which was fairly common for the era.&nbsp; What makes this coin special is that there is a mysterious left-facing bust hidden in the background, which looks nothing like the crude portraits of the Byzantine era.&nbsp; I believe that the coin was actually overstruck twice, and the hidden bust is part of the earliest undertype.</p><p><br /></p><p>After spending many, many enjoyable hours trying to figure out who this mystery man in the background could possibly be, my working theory is that the coin was originally struck as a 3rd Century Roman provincial bronze with &quot;confronted busts&quot;, was then overstruck more than 300 years later under Byzantine emperor Justinian I or Maurice Tiberius, and was then overstruck yet again under emperor Phocas in 605 A.D.</p><p><br /></p><p>I admit that I&#039;m not 100% sure if my theory is right, but I&#039;m hoping that with all of the collective Roman and Byzantine knowledge in this group, you&#039;ll be able to help me to finish solving this puzzle.&nbsp; It really is one of the most unique and interesting coins I&#039;ve ever come across.</p><p><br /></p><p>(For a good background on overstriking, here&#039;s a link to Doug&#039;s page on the topic) <a href="https://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/feac70byz.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/feac70byz.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/feac70byz.html</a>)</p><p><br /></p><p>Here&#039;s the coin, with the original description from the auction house:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1221198[/ATTACH]</p><p>Phocas, Follis (Bronze, 30 mm, 12.99 g), Nicomedia, RY 5 = AD 606/7. δ m FOC[A PЄR AV] Crowned bust of Phocas facing, wearing consular robes and holding mappa in his right hand and cross in his left. <i>Rev.</i> Large XXXX; above ANNO; to right, Ч; in exrgue, NIKO A. DOC 58a. MIB 69a. SB 658 var. (unlisted RY).&nbsp; Traces of overstriking, otherwise, good very fine.</p><p><br /></p><p>It&#039;s not hard to see that my coin was overstruck on an earlier Byzantine follis.&nbsp; There is a large sideways &quot;M&quot; visible on the obverse, which comes from the reverse of the Byzantine undertype. But when I rotated the coin to the left, I was shocked to see an image jump out to me, almost as though I&#039;d seen a ghost.&nbsp; The left-facing bust in the background was part of the earliest design of the coin, and is circled in the photo below.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1221196[/ATTACH]</p><p>Pretty cool, right?&nbsp; So, who is this mystery man?? At first glance, I thought that the bust resembled a 3rd Century &quot;barracks&quot; emperor, possibly Maximinus Thrax or Trajan Decius.&nbsp;&nbsp; But after getting the coin in hand and seeing it up close, I can&#039;t rule out that the face could actually be female. Here&#039;s a photo of the coin in hand...because the undertype is fairly faint, it wasn&#039;t easy to get a clear image up close.&nbsp; The bust is at 2-3 o&#039;clock in my photo below.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1221201[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><b>What era did the original undertype come from?</b></p><p>To identify this, the first question is: what era did the first undertype come from?&nbsp; Was it Byzantine, Roman Imperial, Roman Provincial, something else?&nbsp; The bust certainly <i>looks </i>Roman, but could a coin from the Roman Empire <i>really</i> have still been around and available for overstriking 300 years later in 605 A.D.?&nbsp; I wouldn&#039;t have thought so, but after seeing [USER=19463]@dougsmit[/USER] &#039;s spectacular 11th Century bronze overstruck on a Gordian III As, we know that this sort of thing is possible.</p><p><br /></p><p>There are 3 things about this bust that seem very clear to me: 1) it is left-facing; 2) it is quite small; and 3) the portrait style does not look to be Byzantine.</p><p><br /></p><p>With that in mind, I don&#039;t think that this bust came from a Byzantine coin, because I don&#039;t know of any pre-605 AD Byzantine coin with a left-facing bust that looks anything like this.&nbsp; I don&#039;t think it can be Roman Imperial either, because any imperial bronze of this size and weight would have a much larger portrait. And though it&#039;s definitely possible, I don&#039;t think that it came from a figure on a coin&#039;s reverse, because there&#039;s more detail in the face than is usually seen on a reverse figure.</p><p><br /></p><p>So, what type of bronze coin might have a small, left facing bust with this portrait style? A Roman provincial bronze with &quot;confronted busts &quot;(i.e.- two busts facing each other) seems to be the most likely fit.&nbsp; This style was most popular in the 3rd Century, and large amounts of provincial bronzes with &quot;confronted busts&quot; have a similar approximate size and weight.&nbsp;&nbsp; Most importantly, on these types, each portrait had to be smaller so that 2 portraits could fit onto the coin, and 1 of the portraits would have to be left-facing.</p><p><br /></p><p>After looking through MANY provincial coins of this style, I&#039;ve found several possible matches for the undertype, but haven&#039;t been lucky enough to find a die match.&nbsp; I&#039;ll just share the two types that I think are likely the closest matches.&nbsp; The first is a dynastic issue of Valerian I, also from Nicomedia, which actually has 3 busts (Valerian I, Valerian II, and Gallienus).&nbsp;&nbsp; I think the left-facing bust of Gallienus on these types has a strong resemblance to the bust on my coin:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1221197[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1221214[/ATTACH]</p><p><font size="4">Valerian I, with Gallienus and Valerian II Caesar, Nicomedia, circa 256 A.D., (28mm, 12.5g)</font></p><p><br /></p><p>There are also many coins of Gordian III and Tranquillina which resemble the bust...I think that the portrait of Tranquillina on this coin from Marcianopolis looks quite similar to mine.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1221229[/ATTACH]</p><p>Gordian III and Tranquillina, circa 241-244 A.D., Moesia Inferior, Marcianopolis.</p><p><a href="https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/type/27761" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/type/27761" rel="nofollow">https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/type/27761</a></p><p><br /></p><p>As for the second undertype, I believe that the coin was also overstruck on a follis of 6th Century emperor Justinian I.&nbsp; The obverse of my coin looks to be overstruck on the reverse of the Justinian I follis, as you can clearly see the remnants of a large M, a common reverse which signifies a &quot;40 nummus&quot; denomination.&nbsp; At 3-5 o&#039;clock on the reverse of my coin, it shows what appears to be the letters SPPAV, which may be part of the obverse legend of a Justinian I follis: DN IVSTINIANV<b>S PP AV</b>G.&nbsp; The reverse of my coin with the letters circled and an example of a Justinian I follis are below:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1221204[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1221263[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>I would LOVE to hear your comments, suggestions, and any other possible IDs you can think of for this mystery man (or woman), or for the Byzantine undertype.&nbsp; I&#039;m FAR from an expert in this sort of thing and could certainly be wrong, so please don&#039;t be shy about telling me if I am.&nbsp; Very interested to see what everyone else can come up with. And of course, please feel free to share any of your favorite overstrikes.&nbsp; Thanks![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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