Please can someone help me identify the next coin, 18 mm, 4.60 g, roman provincial, but it has little letters on reverse. It seems that the role model for this coin, or vice versa, were these issues of Arcadius, Theodosius and Honorius: Thanks.
Caracalla ? - see here Weight & diameter are way off, but looks like a portrait of Caracalla to me. Hopefully this helps.
I agree that the first looks like Caracalla, but that's all I can say. PS- Arcadius on the last one, maybe? Neat equestrian reverse there.
Hmm, that's going to be tough because there are so many candidates for this "emperor on horseback" reverse. The portrait looks to be of the Severan era or shortly thereafter. It reminds me of Doug's young Caracalla sestertius, which looks atypical for an imperial Caracalla portrait. I think the obverse legend starts "MAVP..." (for Marcus Aurelius ... ) so it's going to one of the following emperors, although I'm not sure if all of them have at least some provincial coins which begin with MAVP without other preceding titles. Severus Alexander definitely does though. Caracalla (Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus Augustus) Elagabalus (Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus) Severus Alexander (Marcus Aurelius Severus Alexander Augustus) A quick search shows a couple of bare-headed bronzes of SevA with "emperor on horseback, holding (something stick-like)" from Odessa, Moesia Inferior but it may be a smaller denomination: https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=2448622 MOESIA INFERIOR. Odessos. Severus Alexander (222-235). Ae. Obv: M AVP ALEZANΔPOC. Bare head right. Rev: OΔΗCCEITΩN. Emperor on horseback right, holding spear. Varbanov 4417. Condition: Extremely fine. Weight: 2.07 g. Diameter: 14 mm. A better example is in Wildwinds. Whether the thing being held is a sceptre, spear, or bipennis (with axe head off flan), I don't know. Maybe someone who has Varbanov can help you out by looking for this reverse type under Caracalla and Elagabalus too.
Odessos is a good guess, given the paucity of letters in the reverse inscription. Moreover, the horseman riding right is extremely common on coins of this city, because Heros, the city god, is known as a horseman god. Coins of this city from the pre-Roman era commonly feature this rider-god and it was not uncommonly featured on coins of the Roman period as well. Of the Severans, though, Moushmov only lists this reverse for Severus Alexander and not for Elagabalus or Caracalla. This is not to say that the coin couldn't be from another city. But I think @TIF is on the right track.
Bravo TIF, as you have noticed that the portraits of a Doug's sestertius and this provincial bronze are very similar. If this provincial coin is of Severus Alexander then possibly the die cutter did not know how the emperor looked like, so he worked with portrait familiar to him. For example, I noticed that in the fifth year of minting in provincia Viminacium, the portrait of Philip has some of the looks of Gordian III.
Please, can someone help me to identify the next billon denarius. The local seller has put a price of 40 eur and says it is a rare. I saw that Septimius has that reverse with that legend RIC 505. Thanks in advance.
It's from an unknown eastern mint. Here's the listing (331A): But that has a slightly different reverse legend. They footnote the coin: Yours appears to be the one cited in the footnote as A.S.F.N. 1886, p. 102. Lanz sold one two years ago.
