One is the loneliest number, especially at sea

This is sort of an interesting die that I haven't ever seen other than on my coin. Note, there's only one sailor on the galley. Volodya once told me the he thought it was centering mark and that the die just wasn't finished. Plausible, as it does look to be in the center of the coin. Anyway, I've always thought it was interesting and I'd like to find another Legionary issue of Antony that uses this obverse die, but so far I haven't.

Autumn 32-spring 31 BC. AR Denarius (16mm, 3.60 g, 6h). Legionary issue. Praetorian galley right / Aquila right between two signa; LEG VI across lower field. Crawford 544/19; CRI 356; Sydenham 1223; RSC 33.

Feel free to pile on with die oddities or whatever you want. These things take on a life of their own...in a good way!

 

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I'm a sucker for MA Legionary Denarii. Yours is beautiful and well detailed. None of mine are even close to yours, but this is the best detailed galley of the 10 or so I won.

 

Super coin, magnificent detail! I also think it's a centering dot - I measured the distances from the dot to the dotted border at four places, and they are the same.

 

Great coin, Carthago! Someday I'd like to get one or a few legionary denarii.

As for the dot, hmm. It's raised, correct? So, it's a dimple on the die. Maybe the engraver made the presumed centering mark a little deeper than intended. If so, polishing out the mark would involve removing a fair amount surrounding metal which would have an adverse effect on the filling of the devices upon striking a flan, plus it would create a "swelling" on the field... so he opted to leave it? The "swelling" could be avoided by evenly grinding the entire die face but then he would have had to deepen the engraving of all of the devices.

 

I have a galley with a similar dot, but from about 300 years after yours. Centering mark? I dunno, but I always like thinking of it as a lonely sailor too.

 

High grade coins with nothing in the middle usually show a dot. Why the cutter of that die failed to take it out with the boat hull, I can not understand. Did the head on my right sailor below start out as the center dot? I can not rule it out. If I were cutting the die, the mast would have been placed over the dot.

 

That's a spectacular denarius Carthago! Beautiful toning with a superb galley.

 

So this has got me looking through my other Antony Legionaries. Check this out, a few more with what could be centering marks.

 

Very cool OP-example, Carthago (man, I feel kinda sorry for the poor lone oarsman) ... oh, and great thread additions by the CT gang as well (some pretty sweet coins)

 

My sole remaining denarius has a detailed crew (and in the seller's slabbed photos that I can't improve since liberated) but I don't think I see any 'centering marks' although there seems to be a 'dot' beneath the legend T and A ??

 

As far as 'oddities' go, my recent purchase and post with the left arm of Victory seemingly growing out of her abdomen is certainly odd and a bit disturbing LOL

 

Inbreeding?

 

Ummm, the "arm" kinda looks like something else ... ummm, is it coming out of her stomach, or his pants? (very impressive, either way)

 

I like it better upside down. The arm/elbow is correctly oriented.

Paunchy Merman holding horse balloons

 

LOL

 

WV style...

 

Awesome observation!

 

Actually, check out the small dot on your coin above and between the 4th and 5th oarsman. You can see something similar on my LEG XI. I'm thinking those are centering marks.

 

VERY nice galleys Carthago (and others), and smart observation.
On second look (weel, so to speak, as I've stayed hours in front of it and never noticed) just near the head of my second oarsman, you can see something that might be a centering mark too (clickable picture for enlargement)



Q

PS : @TIF, I love your inspiration. You are the incarnation of poetry in numismatics !

 

Thanks, Q!

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In Photoshop I superimposed circles upon the galleys posted here. Conveniently, when that layer is selected there is a cross-mark in the center, which I also marked in red. The results may be skewed if the photograph was not taken with the face of the coin perfectly planar to the lens or if my circle is not perfectly placed, but it is interesting.

The OP coin's dot is clearly a centering mark. The center of the circle is almost exactly over the dot. Allowing for errors due to angle of the coin, faulty placement of the red circle, and such, I'd say this is a confirmation of the dot's purpose and origin:



Carthago's second example doesn't match up well. The "floating" dot on that coin is well above the center of the circle (arrow points to center of circle):




Similarly, his third example doesn't line up as well but perhaps the faint dot to the right of the arrow is within the margin of error:


For Mikey's galley I was expecting the circle's center to land on the faint dot above the next oarsman's head. Determining the proper placement of the circle was difficult so there's a lot of potential error for this one.



I think I see the remnants of a centering mark on Q's coin but it is visible at the tip of the third oarsman's head rather than the second:



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Well. This certainly was a fun although rather pointless way to delay chores!