Hi, someone bought a coin for my b-day from eBay that was incorrectly advertised as Constantine I. After about 4 or 5 days on the internet I think I figured out what the coin is but there is a misspelling on the rev. legend. It reads "PROVDEN" instead of "PROVIDEN". Is that misspelling uncommon for a camp-gate coin such as this? Could the coin be a modern day forgery or ancient unofficial mint? If so does this mean that it was probably not produced at HG? Exergue reads SMHG The coin is almost identical to this one: http://www.vcoins.com/ancient/ofekcoins/store/viewItem.asp?idProduct=44
I think this may be your coin. Constantine II, Heraclea RIC VII 96, and Welcome to the forum. http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/bigp...vII_096.jpg&ruler=./ric/constantine_II/i.html Take Care Ben
Its definately genuine, but I can't confirm Bonedigger's attribution, as I can't read the exergue or the obverse legend in the picture. Go here - http://www.catbikes.ch/coinstuff/coins-ric.htm Find the spreadsheet for Campgates and match the legends/exergue.
more I can make out the exergue. It reads: SMHΓ dot I failed to mention the dot that follows the G (Γ) because I'm a tyro at numismatics. As for the obverse legend it reads: CO?????TINV? IVN NOB C which I'm confident is: CONSTANTINVS by the missing spaces with comparions to other camp-gate coins of Heraclea mint. From Ardatirion's referral to the speadsheet at HELVETICA'S IDENTIFICATION HELP PAGE I found that the coin may be either: SMH gamma dot RIC VII Heraclea 84 (C1) SMH gamma dot RIC VII Heraclea 83 (R2) Like I said before my coin is almost identical to this one here... http://www.vcoins.com/ancient/ofekcoins/store/viewItem.asp?idProduct=44 except for the missing "I" after the letter "V" in (PROVIDENTIAE) on the reverse legend. So right now I'm going to surmise that it is supposedly from the Heraclea mint but could be a "barbaric imitations" i.e. from an unofficial source because of the misspelling? Great responses
Ah, my bad, I see the question now. Bonedigger - the one you showed is really close, but wildwinds isn't detailed enough to identify all of these later types. Going by the spreadsheets, its RIC Heraclea 83, R2 Var. Again, its hard to assess the style based on that picture, but it looks fine, so its probably just an engraver's error. Nice find!
