First time on this forum, thanks in advance. At some point I want to sell this one, but am unsure of the attribution. 12mm, 1.15g
hmmm...looks unoffical, garbled legend? the reverse is victory advancing dragging a captive i'm pretty sure.
Thanks for the quick response. At quick glance it does seem like an imitation, however let me tell you me thoughts on why I bought it. The inscription is OR is very close to DN IVL MA ******S PF AV That alone did not convince me until I referenced it with this https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=2331741 To me to lowered L seemed to be a match, the only inconsistency is the SALVS REIPVBLICAE reverse. If it is a unofficial I paid way too much . It is my understanding imitations are usually, but not always modeled after emperors. If this is true which emperor is this coin modeled after?
Its dragging a captive so it can't be Majorian. Definitely Theodosius II or Johannes. They have this reverse type. I'm leaning towards Johannes since I think I see IOHAN but with the O and A gone. And I believe I see a beard as well (Johannes was bearded). To me it looks official but I am not 100% certain.
I'm leaning toward Johannes, and if it's him, it's in better condition than most. The style looks right. I don't buy 5th century AE4s anymore, because usually you cannot be 100% certain about the attribution. At this stage in the empire, the style had deteriorated to the extent that it's hard to distinguish an official issue from a contemporary imitation. It's hard to find an AE4 with enough legend to attribute the coin to any ruler, and a lot of these coins are sold with very optimistic attributions. I regularly see AE4s of Avitus, Majorian, Anthemius, Nepos in auctions, but I don't trust any of them. Tooling, especially of monograms, is rampant and I can point to several examples (I've been burned myself). I'd much prefer a solidus or tremisis to represent those emperors.
The legend may not be perfect but there's little doubt it's Johannes. Style, portrait and legend details fit this Emperor exactly. I actually agree with you, but like anything else, once you educate yourself as to what to look for you can spot a majority of fake or altered pieces a mile away. Problem is that during that learning period you can definitely make (expensive) mistakes.
By portrait may be Theodosius II, struck by Johannes in the mint of Rome, but as @Brian Bucklan says, legend is no clear
The key to me is the legend on the right side (the full legend is definitely split). The lettering is somewhat large and there's only room for a couple of letters before the PF AVG. Those letters would be ES, so you are looking at DN IOHANN - ES PF AVG. The initial "O" is poorly formed, and the H is leaning a bit, but you can certainly read ANN after that.
Yes I see it now. What I thought was an M is actually AN. Definitely helps to have a fresh pair of eyes. Guess I didn't do too bad after all. I typically don't buy these types as they are often misattributed, but this one stood out to me as not common.
