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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;cmezner, post: 7689817, member: 87809&quot;]An opportunity to show (again<img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie8" alt=":D" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />) my recent Claudius II Gothicus:</p><p><br /></p><p>Alexandria, Egypt, RY 2 = August 269 – August 270 AD</p><p>20 x 22 mm, 10.8 g</p><p>Emmett 3893.2; Köln 3045; Dattari (Savio) 5407; K&amp;G 104.32; Milne 4254; SRCV III 11414</p><p><br /></p><p>Ob.: AΥT•K•KΛAΥΔIOC•CЄB Laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right.</p><p>Rev.: Poseidon standing left, right foot resting on dolphin, holding torch (variously described as grain ear, sword, ship&#039;s ram, aphlaston) in right hand and trident in left; across fields regnal year LB</p><p style="text-align: center">[ATTACH=full]1320383[/ATTACH]</p><p>David Sear, author of the &quot;... Coins and their Values&quot; handbooks which are the essential collecting references for Roman, Greek, Greek Imperial, and Byzantine coins once observed that in his opinion one of the most neglected and undervalued series of ancient coins was the billon and potin tetradrachm issues of Egypt under the Roman Empire.</p><p><br /></p><p>When the tribulations of the late third century impacted this coinage, billon was replaced by potin, an alloy dominated by copper and lead with a nominal but small silver content.</p><p>Potin tetradrachm issues from Alexandria, beginning with the reign of Claudius II (268-270) and extending until the end of Provincial issues in 305, were prolific and despite the fact that they lasted only 37 years, form a very fascinating subset of numismatic history.</p><p>Quoted from <a href="http://classicalcoins.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-billon-and-potin-tetradrachms-of.html?m=1" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://classicalcoins.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-billon-and-potin-tetradrachms-of.html?m=1" rel="nofollow">http://classicalcoins.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-billon-and-potin-tetradrachms-of.html?m=1</a></p><p><br /></p><p>However, some numismatists are of the opinion that Tetradrachms of Alexandria always contain a drop of silver and should be called billon, a good catch-all term for &quot;not very silver but silver bearing&quot; coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>In France the word Potin is specifically used for AE Celtic coins, the thick dumpy dark coins that don’t contain silver, but lead, white metal (zinc, tin) and possibly iron (and copper naturally).[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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