This coin is horrible looking and I love it. It is a Constans FEL TEMP galley overstruck with a [unofficial] Julian II SECVRITAS REIPVB bull reverse Constans A.D. 348- 350 23mm 5.3g D N CONSTA-NS P F AVG; pearl diademed, draped & cuirassed bust right. FEL TEMP REPARATIO; Emperor in military dress stg. l., holding victory on globe and standard with Chi-Rho; in stern sits Victory, steering ship. In ex. TRP RIC VIII Trier 219 Here's the undertype and here's an unofficial Julian II
I've always found overstruck coins fascinating, especially when a good portion of the original coin is still visible. Nice acquisition!
That is a really spectacular overstrike! It's really something special to find one whose overstrike creates a new design (in this case, a weird centaur...and Constans w/ bushy eyebrows & mutton chops!). One wonders if sometimes these weren't done on purpose... I bought the following coin for such a reason. I've seen a few others (e.g., Weber 1178) of these Adranon overstrikes where it looks like Apollo is still wearing Athena's helmet (from the Syracuse AE Drachm under-type). But this is the only one I've seen where the lyre on the reverse has a frame constructed out of the under-type's dolphin's! CNS III 2 st 4/5 = Virzi 512 = CNG EA 116 (2005), 56 (The photo looks much better than the coin, so I use this old one from CNG.) The under-type would be one of these (NOT MY COIN):
I've posted this before, but here's one of my favorite mashups -- an unofficial FEL TEMP overstruck on a posthumous issue of Constantine I, both types from Antioch. Ex-Collection of Ralph Van Deman Magoffin, eminent American Classical scholar and archaeologist, 1874-1942...I hope he enjoyed it is much as I do! the first pic with the coin rotated to show the undertype what it looks like without an overstrike now rotated to show the unofficial FEL TEMP and what the official type looks like
Oh! Just realized that FH has a great shield decoration on the reverse! One of randygeki's many decorated shields has such a swirl, but w/ more "spokes." Those are interesting. Here's rg's decorated-shields collage (I don't recall which threads it's in), with the "swirl" at the very center (click to enlarge for anyone interested): NOT MY COINS/COLLAGE. Source: @randygeki Sorry to derail!
