I'd know that die anywhere -- Gordy & Tranquillina provincial

This is a new purchase. I wanted it not only because I like the dual portrait coinage on the large bronzes of Moesia Inferior and Thrace, but specifically because of the obverse die with which it was struck.

In the course of researching the Roman provincial tetrassaria of Gordian III and Tranquillina from Mesembria, I noticed this particular die has a distinctive pattern of obverse die damage between and above the portraits. The damage consists of raised blobs between and above the portraits, which extends to the obverse legend at the 11:00-12:00 position as the damage progressed with further use of the die.

Moreover, I noticed eight different reverse types of this city were struck with this same obverse die.

These coins were unknown to western numismatists until recently and are not to be found in the museum collections of western Europe and are not listed in SNG Copenhagen, AMNG II, BMC Thrace, Moushmov, Lindgren, Mionnet, Sear, or Wiczay.

On this coin, the damage does not yet involve the obverse inscription and it must have been struck before the second example:


Gordian AD 238-244 and Tranquillina.
Roman provincial Æ tetrassarion, 25.1 mm, 11.78 g, 7 h.
Thrace, Mesembria, AD 241-244.
Obv: ΑVΤ Κ Μ ΓΟΡΔΙΑΝΟC ΑVΓ CΕΒ-ΤΡΑΝΚVΛ|ΛΙΝΑ, confronted busts of Gordian III, laureate, wearing cuirass and paludamentum, and of Tranquillina, diademed and draped.
Rev: ΜΕ-CΑΜΒ-ΡΙ-ΑΝΩΝ, Demeter standing facing, head left, holding ears of corn in right hand, left resting on long torch.
Refs: Varbanov 4188; Corpus Nummorum Thracorum 9283.

By the time this second example was minted, the obverse die had deteriorated further, such that the obverse inscription was significantly affected:


Gordian AD 238-244 and Tranquillina.
Roman provincial Æ tetrassarion, 28.6 mm, 11.36 g, 7 h.
Thrace, Mesembria, AD 241-244.
Obv: ΑVΤ Κ Μ ΓΟΡΔΙΑΝΟC ΑVΓ CΕΒ-ΤΡΑΝΚVΛ|ΛΙΝΑ, confronted busts of Gordian III, laureate, wearing cuirass and paludamentum, and of Tranquillina, diademed and draped.
Rev: ΜΕCΑΜΒΡ-Ι-ΑΝΩΝ, Demeter standing left, wearing stephane, holding phiale and long torch.
Refs: Varbanov 4190, citing Karajatov 83.

As always, post comments or any coins you deem relevant!

 

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Interesting topic. The next question is: are there any coins from a different city with this obverse die?

Some Roman provincials look so stylistically similar that I've often wondered if there were regional mints that made coins for more than one city. While we can't use this obverse to disprove that this happened, if there were an obverse die match with a reverse from a different city we could affirm it.

I tried searching for "Gordian Tranquillina" on acsearch but got over 1,000 hits, so I gave up after the first 100 or so. (I found two similar obverses, both from Mesembria.) I'm not a subscriber, so I can't try out their new image search function, but if anyone else wants to try, here's a cropped photo of the OP with just the obverse.