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Message:: [QUOTE="Roman Collector, post: 3697218, member: 75937"]What a lovely coin, [USER=76086]@Ken Dorney[/USER] ! An interesting "brass as," too! There are three reverse types of this denomination bearing a griffin -- (1) Cohen 433 (yours), with a griffin running right, (2) Cohen 434, with a griffin running left, and (3) Cohen 435, with a griffin seated left with forepaw raised. [ATTACH=full]990918[/ATTACH] The British Museum has only one of these, Cohen 435 (<a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1199633&partId=1&searchText=Hadrian+Griffin&page=1" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1199633&partId=1&searchText=Hadrian+Griffin&page=1" rel="nofollow">BMCRE3 1353</a>). Here is their specimen: [ATTACH=full]990916[/ATTACH] Mattingly, in the introduction to BMCRE3,* notes: <blockquote>A small group of Asses and Semisses, struck in orichalcum, not copper, and quadrantes (?), with a slightly unusual, if fine style, should without much doubt be assigned to an Eastern mint. The type of the city 'Tyche', holding corn-ears, with a river-god swimming below, seems to be a rendering of the famous type of Antioch, which may well be the mint of the coins. Other types are Roma Victrix, loyally honoured abroad, and the Pegasus and lyre, both types of Apollo, who enjoyed a special worship at Antioch.</blockquote> He doesn't cite references or explain beyond this, but it seems his rationale for attributing all of these orichalcum versions of what would be copper coins if struck at the mint at Rome was to assign them to the Antioch mint on the basis of the iconography of some of the issues. A well-known example of such iconography is this tiny bronze issued under Maximinus II: <img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/anonymous-quarter-follis-under-maximinus-antioch-apollo-jpg.984978/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" />Anonymous issue under Maximinus II.Roman billon quarter follis, 1.35 g, 16.3 mm, 11 h.Antioch, officina 6, AD 311-312.Obv: GENIO ANTIOCHENI, Tyche of Antioch seated facing; river god Orontes swimming below.Rev: APOLLONI SANCTO, Apollo standing left holding patera and lyre; S in right field, SMA in ex.Refs: RCV 14927; Vagi 2954; Van Heesch 3(a); McAlee 170f. They could therefore be seen as the Hadrianic equivalent to these orichalcum Asses and Semisses of Trajan similarly issued for use in the east and which may have been minted in Antioch as well: <img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/trajan-dac-parthico-p-m-tr-pot-xx-cos-vi-p-p-as-jpg.876568/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" />Trajan. A.D. 98-117.Roman orichalcum as, 8.49 g, 23.5 mm, 6 h.Struck in Rome for circulation in Syria (?); Struck in Antioch (?), AD 115/16.Obv: IMP CAES NER TRAIANO OPTIMO AVG GERM, radiate and draped bust right; c/m: bucranium within incuse punch.Rev: DAC PARTHICO P M TR POT XX COS VI P P around laurel wreath enclosing large SC.Refs: RIC 647; BMCRE 1094; Cohen 123; RCV 3243; Woytek 937v; McAlee 509; Strack 479; BN 953-5. For c/m: <a href="http://www.romancoins.info/Countermark-List.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.romancoins.info/Countermark-List.html" rel="nofollow">Pangerl 63</a>; Howgego 294. ~~~ *Mattingly, Harold. Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum. Vol. III: Nerva to Hadrian, British Museum, 1966, pp. clxviii.[/QUOTE]

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