Featured Exercises in Identification

Thanks a lot @dougsmit !
I really appreciate the insight as well. Not only do we get to learn about the emperor and the history of where it was minted, now I have something to share with my son when he gets home
That is a great example coin you shared as well. I can only imagine how huge these guys' arms had to have been. Hammering out coins day in and day out.

 

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FFIVN had a snow day today...lucky dog...I gave him a coin to ID before heading off to work this morning. Came home to this identification

Constantine II
Thessalonica
317-318 AD
Obverse: CONSTANTINVS IVN NOB CAES, laureate, draped, cuirassed bust right
Reverse: CLARITAS-REIPVBLICAE, Sol standing left, chlamys across left shoulder, holding globe, right hand raised. Mintmark dot TS dot B dot.


wildwinds doesn't have an example of this coin's mint mark which caused a bit of consternation on his part. I explained that they didn't have every example of every coin ever minted to which he seemed to be ok with.

 

An available notation for each coin explaining the reasons/sources for attribution...
...of that particular coin...
...that can be readily connected/associated/identified with that certain coin...
...would obviate someone having to do all the work of attribution all over again.
But then, they wouldn't have any fun.

 

My son and I worked on 2 different coins today. One pertaining to this thread and another pertaining to the coins we picked up in Baltimore.

After seeing another post of someone asking about identification of an Anonymous Follis, to which @medoraman posted a great pdf write up about the different types of them, I thought that we could check out the coin below. We quickly realized that this was not an Anonymous Follis.

Having basically zero knowledge of Byzantine coins, FFIVN and I decided to just google some of the words that we could make out on the reverse. Lucky for us, it worked out quite well and we were able to fairly easily identify the coin, ruler, date struck, and the mint:

Phocas, 40 Nunmi
607-608 AD
Obv: d m FOCA PER AVG, Crowned bust facing, wearing consular robes, holding mappa and cross, crown with pendillia
Rev: XXXX; above; ANNO; to right G; NIKOB
Minted: Nikodemia


Seems as though Phocas was a rather inept ruler. After usurping Emperor Maurice in 602, he spent the next 8 years installing his relatives in prominent positions, regardless if they were up to the task or not, and fighting off different rebellions. He was eventually overthrown by Heraclius in 610 and quickly executed.

 

The Constantine II is interesting to me in that it is an issue where each of the participating rulers got a separate reverse type. It is only R2 but there might be more a demand for it than coins that were issued by everyone. The coin I would like from this issue (RIC vol VII page 502) is the Licinius II.

The Phocas is not a hard ID but the coin was overstruck on an earlier coin. IDing it will be harder. Can you see a large face under the reverse tilted a bit to the left? The most clear part is the cross on top of the crown. That cross rules one one possible ruler and makes another more likely but I have not seen other ID points on the coin that allow ID of the undertype at my amateur level of Byzantine study. Most of these coins are overstruck but it is better when ou can tell what is underneath. My example below is much like yours but if you rotate the reverse a quarter turn to the left, you can see a trefoil crown ornament a used by Maurice Tiberius and some of the legends of the undertype.

 

Thanks @dougsmit for the extra insight! You always have a lot of great information to share. Now that I know where to focus, I can definitely see the face and the cross on the crown. That is really cool! Looks like we have some more detective work to do on this coin.

Also a correction to my ID: The mint should be Nicomedia not Nicodemia. I can't edit the post now That's what I get for typing too fast!

 

Another one of my Baltimore purchases. I picked it up for $5. It was listed as Vespasian but nothing else. I figured with that much, I could work on it and find an ID. I was wrong. I can't make out the reverse for the life of me. Can anyone help? The same dealer I bought this from also sold me another that was partially mis-attributed so that may be the case with this one as well. Thanks for looking!

Diameter: Approximately 24mm
Weight: 12.12g

 

Look at examples of coins showing Mt. Argaeus .

 

My real answer should probably be "I can't tell", I flirted with Titus - with a Judea Capta reverse, but instead, I am voting for (not suggesting or recommending) Nero because of the jawline and that tuft of hair in front. That and I am imagining the letters ARAVGG placed just at the right point above his head.

 

https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=3672030
https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=2594810
https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=453260

 

I was just getting there haha. Looks to be a match for the 3rd link.

 

They're all the same basic type. The portrait certainly looks like Vespasian and you can make out a bit of the obverse legend at ~10:00-12:00 on your coin:
...CAPCEB..., which is the last part of "Caesar" and the first part of "Augustus". The emperor name is off flan and/or worn on yours but I think you can record it as Vespasian with confidence.

 

My son and I had fun at the coin show this morning and decided to ID a couple more that we have been sitting on due to me needing to re-take pictures. The originals were blurry.

Constantine I AE Follis, AD 309-310.
Lyons. IMP CONSTANTINVS P F AVG, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right, seen from the back
SOLI INVIC-TO COMITI, Sol standing left, chlamys falling from left shoulder, holding globe and raising right hand. F-T across fields.
Mintmark PLG.

(I thought this picture turned out quite well )


Arcadius AE 3. ca 384-387 AD.
DN ARCADI-VS PF AVG, pearl-diademed, draped and cuirassed bust right
GLORIA ROMANORVM, emperor walking right, holding labarum and dragging a captive behind him.
Mintmark BSISC


We have 2 more 2 identify in this set. Looking forward to it

 

Your obverse legend ends with P F AVG and the bust is also draped and seen from the back.

 

D'oh! You're totally correct. I copied the wrong one. Thanks for the correction! I just made it on my post.

 

We tried another one of the 2 left this afternoon. It was much harder and I would say that we are currently a little north of 50% on being correct.

We could tell off that bat that it is supposed to be, or rather look like, a denarius. The silver plating has come off quite a bit of the coin revealing the base metal underneath. This led us to look at fourees.
We read up on fourees on @dougsmit 's page here
as well as the fouree page on Forvm here

On the obverse we can make out "DIVO" positively and then what looks like "SE" following that. On the reverse, a few letters that seem to be from "CONSECRATIO".

We weren't able to nail down an exact example but did find one that looks to be a match possibly for the design it intended to copy here: http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/sear5/s7051.html

Our "educated" guess is that it is an ancient copy of:
Divus Septimius Severus Denarius. 211 AD.
DIVO SEVERO PIVO, bare head right
CONSECRATIO, eagle standing facing on globe, head left, wings spread



How did we do? Are we in the ballpark? Is there any way to further nail down where/when this particular coin was minted?

As always, thanks for looking!

 

When Septimius died, the branch mints had been closed leaving only Rome making denarii. However, a fourree copy could have been made anywhere so there is no way of saying where.

 

So what I'm getting from your message is
1) We identified it correctly
2) We identified it as best as can be done

Is that right?

 

Can you please tell me something about this coin??