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Message:: [QUOTE="jamesicus, post: 3009041, member: 14873"]An afterthought: I do not like to send fellow Forum Members off-site in order to pursue web page links, so here is the content of the web page I reference in my previous post: COINAGE PRODUCED IN BRITAIN AT THE LONDON MINTNotes and Production Information <img src="http://jp29.org/pln06s.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /><img src="http://jp29.org/pln07s.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /><img src="http://jp29.org/pln05s.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /><img src="http://jp29.org/pln10s.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> Recap: After his restoration of Britain to the Empire, Constantius re-opened the London Mint, now as an official facility with one officina (workshop), which continued to operate until its closure in 325. It seems very likely that much of the early unmarked coinage was produced at the London Mint using British die engravers and other workers, formerly employed by the Carausius - Allectus Mints, now supervised and mixed in with Lugdunese mint workers who accompanied the Constantius invasion force. Notes<ul> <li>Output of the London Mint: Sutherland (Roman Imperial Coinage [RIC], Volume VI) in his Londinium Introductory Notes indicates that the output of the London Mint, restricted to the production of Aes coinage (and with only one officina), does not appear to be continuous. By inference, production was probably somewhat sporadic and not as copious as other western mints.</li> <li>What happened to RIC, Vol. VI, LONDINIUM Group I, Class I? The coin listings of Group I commence with Class II. Why not Class I and what happened to the coin listings for that Class anyway? The answer is that the entire listing identified as Class I was transferred to RIC, Vol. VI, LUGDUNUM, (iv), folles, Class I (14a-21) -- the Invasion coinage of Bastien (undoubtedly prior to publication). Sutherland explains all this in his Introductory text to the LONDINIUM section of RIC VI. The bottom line is the quote of Sutherland that ".......... Bastien is to be followed in regarding the unmarked coins of Class I as an issue prepared in advance for Constantius' invasion of Britain in 296."</li> <li>LON marked coins: The first folles produced by the re-opened London Mint (RIC volume VI, Group I, Class II) featured Lugdunese style right facing busts with bare neck truncation and laureate heads with the long laurel wreath ribbon laying on the neck. The Genius of the Roman People reverse depictions and inscriptions are standard but with with LON (mint mark) in the exergue. The inscriptional lettering is more compact with smaller and thicker letterforms.</li> <li>Mint Marked/Unmarked coinage note: Bastien ("Some Comments on the Coinage of the London Mint, AD 297-313") rejects the postulation of Carson and Kent that the LON mint mark was discontinued because of some kind of "damnatio memoriae" punishment due to the erstwhile British rebellion. Some scholars opine that the LON marked coinage was an experiment that was subsequently abandoned in favor of the unmarked coinage.</li> <li>Genius Reverse depiction: Almost always a representation of the Genius of the Roman People standing, facing left, head surmounted by a modius, naked except for a chlamys over the left shoulder, holding a patera in the right hand and cradling a cornucopia in the left arm. Very rarely, and mostly after 1 May 305, Genius is depicted with loins draped, and wearing a towered head-dress.</li> <li>Die axes: Reverse die axis is usually 6 o'clock for this series - only very occasionally are coins encountered with 12 o'clock reverse die axis.</li> <li>Intermediate Group coins (Bastien): The Intermediate Group folles, coming directly after the LON issues were first proposed by Bastien. In his proposal these coins fall into two groups, those with laureate heads (a) and those with laureate, cuirassed busts (b), both of Lugdunese style and with British style inscriptional lettering.</li> <li>Ribbon ties: The Obverse head with the laurel wreath long ribbon end draped on the portrait neck, a recurring feature on the unknown Continental Mint invasion coinage, is also found on Intermediate Group coinage.</li> <li>Inscriptional lettering: Whereas the invasion coinage produced at the unknown Continental Mint features inscriptional lettering with delicate and relatively large letterforms, the Intermediate Group coinage features the typical British smaller, more compact and thicker lettering.</li> <li>Early portraiture: The LON marked and Intermediate Group coinage portraiture style bears the unmistakable stamp of Lugdunese die engravers.</li> <li>RIC VI, Group I, Class IIa portraiture: The Londinium Class IIa coinage in particular (small head on a tall neck) appears to have been considerably influenced by, and indeed may be mostly the work of, British die engravers who formerly rendered those portrait styles at the Carausius and Allectus Mints.</li> <li>RIC VI Lugdunum/Londinium duplication attribution problems: The Londinium Group I, Class II (b) and Lugdunum Class I coinage presents some unique attribution problems. For example, Londinium, No. 20 and Lugdunum No. 18 have identical descriptions. If you subscribe to the RIC conspectus then the portraits are the attribution determinants. However, if you subscribe to Bastien's assessment of the Lugdunum Class I (unmarked) folles then there can be no Lugdunum attribution (only for 14a, 14b, 17a, 17b). Londinium No. 22 and Lugdunum No. 21 also have identical descriptions.</li> <li>Additional Mints (to London) possibilities: In his introduction to the Londinium section of RIC VI, Sutherland raises the possibility that at least some of the Unmarked Group I, Class II (a & b) folles may have been produced in Britain by a re-opened Carausius/Allectus "C" Mint (or traveling Mint), thereby accounting for the somewhat rough style portraiture - particularly the "small head on a tall neck" busts of Group I, Class IIa coins which are reminiscent of many Carausius/Allectus issues. Sutherland does not seem to pursue this theory, however.</li> <li>Bastien's "Some Comments on the Coinage of the London Mint, AD 297-311" article:This 1971 Numismatic Chronicle article by Pierre Bastien includes important in-depth discussions of the early (post invasion/occupation) London Mint coinage and the British/Lugdunese engravers (scalptores) - few in number, probably only four or five - who produced the dies.</li> <li>Coin obverses with elaborate Cuirasses/Consular features: Stewartby (see final Note) places great emphasis on the number of unmarked coins in the Market Stainton Finds hoard that feature elaborate cuirasses and what he describes as consular features. He goes on to include a discussion of "consular robe busts" plus "palmed" and "wavy line" cuirass features and their possible use in attributing particularly Intermediate Group coins. The two plates (27 & 28) accompanying his article depict examples of these types.</li> <li>Length of coin obverse inscriptional legends/titulature: Stewartby also discusses the significance of the length of inscriptional legends/titulature, postulating that the longest forms are probably the earliest and the shortest are probably the latest.</li> <li>Absence of Diocletian coins in RIC VI, Londinium, Group I, Class II (b): No coins are listed as being issued in the name of DIOCLETIAN in Group I, Class II (b) - laureate, cuirassed bust, with larger, elongated head on shorter neck. However, there are reports of DIOCLETIAN coins from this series in collections</li> <li>Paucity of RIC VI, Londinium, Group I coin photo images: In light of the numerous issues raised, first by Bastien and later by Stewartby, relating to the Intermediate Group coinage, it is often difficult to attribute RIC Volume VI, Londinium, Group I, coins (No. 6-39) with any certainty since there are very few plate coin illustrations in RIC to compare against.</li> <li>Lord Stewartby's "Early Tetrarchic Coins of London from the Market Stainton Finds" article: This 1998 Numismatic Chronicle article contains much valuable information relating to the early British coinage despite his categorization scheme being slightly different from that used by Sutherland for RIC Volume VI, Londinium, Group I, coins.</li> </ul>[/QUOTE]

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