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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;gsimonel, post: 2563657, member: 82549&quot;]After reading your page, Victor (<a href="http://www.constantinethegreatcoins.com/fractions/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.constantinethegreatcoins.com/fractions/" rel="nofollow">http://www.constantinethegreatcoins.com/fractions/</a>), I&#039;ve started wondering about this series:</p><p><img src="http://feltemp.com/Images/76.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p>Antioch mint, A.D. 321-323</p><p>RIC 34</p><p>Obv: IMP C FL VAL CONSTANTINVS P F AVG</p><p>Rev: IOVI CONS-ERVATORI - Jupiter, leaning on eagle-tipped scepter, holding Victory on globe; eagle with wreath at feet to right, captive to left</p><p>SMANTB in exergue; X over IIM (truncated) in right field</p><p>19 mm, 3.1 g.</p><p><br /></p><p>Again, I assume that the radiate bust indicates a half nummus. This series was minted at Heraclea, Nicomedia, Cyzicus and Alexandra, which kind of undermines my conjecture that these fractions was not intended for general circulation. </p><p><br /></p><p>The strangest thing about this series is that all the mints that issued this coin had the same strange field mark: an X over II and then what looks like an M chopped in half vertically. You can see it a little better in this version from Nicomedia:</p><p><img src="http://feltemp.com/Images/77.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p>RIC 43</p><p>19 mm, 2.7 g.</p><p><br /></p><p>The size and weight is similar to most of the other bronze coins that came out after 317 A.D. So is it really a half nummus? I still think it&#039;s possible, since the value of a bronze coin had nothing to do with the value of the metal that it contained. Suppose, just for the sake of argument, it was intended as a fractional coin. If a nummus was valued at 25 denarii, this would be worth 12 1/2. Is it possible that the half M represents the numeral 0.5? If there is another explanation for this field mark, I&#039;m not aware of it. Any ideas? Anyone know of an explanation?[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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