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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;John Anthony, post: 2368680, member: 42773&quot;]Yes, dates of rule are given in ancient coin attributions, although the last year of rule can generally be assumed to be the year of the emperor&#039;s death. An emperor retiring is a very rare occurrence in Roman history.</p><p><br /></p><p>To look at the first coin in more detail, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valens" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valens" rel="nofollow">wiki article on Valens</a> is pretty good. He was co-emperor in the East, along with his brother Valentinian I in the West.</p><p><br /></p><p>The Romans used many abbreviations in their legends. D N VALENS P F AVG expands to Dominus Noster Valens Pius Felix Augustus, or Our Lord Valens, Pious and Happy (or Lucky) Augustus. The reverse proclaims the glory of Rome: GLORIA ROMANORVM. The emperor is seen holding a banner with the chi-rho symbol on it, dragging a captive, suggesting that he is leading barbarians into the light of Christianity. (By this time, Christianity was the official religion of the empire.)</p><p><br /></p><p>The letters TESΓ stand for Thessalonica mint, 3rd workshop. The workshops, or subdivisions of the mint, were sometimes numbered by Greek letters. Gamma is the third letter of the Greek alphabet, hence the third officina.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here&#039;s an example of one of mine, also from the Thessalonica mint, but TESB = 2nd officina...</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]484070[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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