A friend of mine recently bought this coin and asked me how could this have happened. It´s a common Valentinian I, partly overstriked. Not by the same obverse die as one could expect, but one of Valens. I really have no clue, since they appear to be both official obverse coin dies. Take a look at the pictures and tell me what you make out of it. Nothing relevant to the reverse, just the blow from the overstrike. Thanks in advance!
I don't know how true this is BUT I was told many years ago that periodically older coins were removed from circulation and examined for weight and purity. If they were within limits they were then lightly over struck with the current dies and if they were too worn to pass they were melted down for reuse. Since I have seen many examples of heavily worn ancient coins this must not have been a universal practice. That factoid is worth at least what you just paid for it.
Interesting. One coin, two different anvil dies. I too suspect as you have suggested that the break pattern on the secondary obverse strike, "P F AVG" is counterbalanced by VALENS. Given the complete absence of detail on the reverse secondary strike, I suspect the hammer die was merely a hammer without an image (possibly to burnish out the existing earlier image?). Unfortunately the coin (probably heated to some extent) was placed face down in a Valens anvil die but was not positioned properly for a restrike, and when the hammer came down all Hades broke loose. Just a thought.
With the lack of quality control I think the Celetor, and or his aid, was having fun. Here is one of my favs of these. Though, I believe, it is the same die it was struck 3 times at East, South and West...like most coins much cooler in person.
