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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 1840404, member: 19463&quot;]While I have nicer examples, my offering here is a sad story I am ashamed to tell.&nbsp; I was at a coin show and pulled from a junk bin a coin with one decent side and one total loss.&nbsp; Looking at it I thought it would make a good piece of ancient coin jewelry so I bought it.&nbsp; I took it home and scrubbed the reverse so the design showed best and painted it with polyurethane so it would not retone and lose contrast.&nbsp; Why would anyone do that to a genuine ancient coin?&nbsp; The coin fit very well in a ring intended for a US quarter (which cost more than the coin) so I bent it around the unround coin and added a chain.&nbsp; My wife has worn in on several occasions including one day when we were invited to a coin friend&#039;s house to meet in person another coin friend from out of town.&nbsp; He looked at the coin an commented on the SIS mintmark.&nbsp; It seems that the list of mints for which the Chi-Rhos were struck does not include Siscia.&nbsp; I had the sinking feeling that I had been very naughty to the only surviving example of a very important coin.&nbsp; Looking closer, it is pretty obvious that the spellings are not exactly correct so the coin is probably a barbarous copy (reducing my crime from a felony to a misdemeanor?).&nbsp; There is no restoring the coin to its original state and the obverse is and forever will be nothing but the coin shows a reason why you should be a little more careful when making jewelry out of innocent coins. </p><p>[ATTACH=full]305602[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>I do like these coins.&nbsp; They were made at several mints with contrasting styles (I prefer Amiens)</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]305609[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>and in the name of Decentius Caesar as well as Magentius.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]305608[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Most scarce are the few struck in the name of Constantius II supposedly by Poemenius during a very confused period in the civil wars.&nbsp; The original point of the type by Magnentius was to curry favor with Roman (Catholic) Christians against the Arian heretic Constantius.&nbsp; Arians did not believe in the divinity of Christ and would not, in particular, like the alpha and omega flanking the Chi-Rho since this suggested a belief that Christ was not a later creation but had been there with God from the beginning.&nbsp; Issuing an Orthodox coin in the name of the great supporter of the heresy was just plain wrong.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]305607[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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