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<p>[QUOTE="DonnaML, post: 4353783, member: 110350"]Thanks so much to all of you for the completely fascinating explanation for the dot between the O and the B in the center of the reverse. It never would have occurred to me. I was familiar with the central "dimple" in provincial coins like this Gordian III-Tranqullina coin of mine from Anchialus in Thrace:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1101602[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>But I had never realized that the central dots used as compass points (or their traces) remain visible on a number of Roman imperial coins as well, as [USER=19463]@dougsmit[/USER] demonstrates with his examples. I guess that the design of Galba's RIC 167, with an otherwise blank space in the center of the reverse, is almost ideally suited for the dot to survive visibly on the struck coin. There can't be too many others like that.</p><p><br /></p><p>The quickest way to see how frequently the central dot is visible on this coin type might be at the free version of coinarchives.com, which shows 19 results for a search for Galba 167 (see <a href="https://www.coinarchives.com/a/results.php?search=galba+167&s=0&upcoming=0&results=100" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.coinarchives.com/a/results.php?search=galba+167&s=0&upcoming=0&results=100" rel="nofollow">https://www.coinarchives.com/a/results.php?search=galba+167&s=0&upcoming=0&results=100</a>). The results are presented with images large enough (larger than those shown in the first instance in the search results at acsearch and the cng archives) to see rather easily that there's a dot visible in all but two or three of the 19. And for those two or three, its absence probably results from wear. The best evidence that the placement of the dot relates to the center of the die, and has nothing to do with the letters "O" and "B," might be this image: <a href="https://www.coinarchives.com/01d2066daabe43126e62b60f42772d59/img/heritage/3082/image33225.jpg" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.coinarchives.com/01d2066daabe43126e62b60f42772d59/img/heritage/3082/image33225.jpg" rel="nofollow">https://www.coinarchives.com/01d2066daabe43126e62b60f42772d59/img/heritage/3082/image33225.jpg</a>. As you can see, the dot is not centered between the letters (it actually touches the upper part of the "B"), but appears almost exactly in the center of the coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>And thanks for the compliments on my coin. I chose it for the very expressive portrait of Galba, not for the dot on the reverse! That was just something I happened to notice.</p><p><br /></p><p>By the way, with this Galba, and counting the bronze asses I have for Caligula and Claudius, I suppose I'm now missing only Julius Caesar and Otho out of the "Twelve Caesars." I could probably buy a halfway decent Caesar elephant coin for a couple of hundred dollars more than I paid for the Galba -- not that I'm prepared to spend that much in the near future! -- but I think a nice-looking Otho coin is probably out of reach for me.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="DonnaML, post: 4353783, member: 110350"]Thanks so much to all of you for the completely fascinating explanation for the dot between the O and the B in the center of the reverse. It never would have occurred to me. I was familiar with the central "dimple" in provincial coins like this Gordian III-Tranqullina coin of mine from Anchialus in Thrace: [ATTACH=full]1101602[/ATTACH] But I had never realized that the central dots used as compass points (or their traces) remain visible on a number of Roman imperial coins as well, as [USER=19463]@dougsmit[/USER] demonstrates with his examples. I guess that the design of Galba's RIC 167, with an otherwise blank space in the center of the reverse, is almost ideally suited for the dot to survive visibly on the struck coin. There can't be too many others like that. The quickest way to see how frequently the central dot is visible on this coin type might be at the free version of coinarchives.com, which shows 19 results for a search for Galba 167 (see [URL]https://www.coinarchives.com/a/results.php?search=galba+167&s=0&upcoming=0&results=100[/URL]). The results are presented with images large enough (larger than those shown in the first instance in the search results at acsearch and the cng archives) to see rather easily that there's a dot visible in all but two or three of the 19. And for those two or three, its absence probably results from wear. The best evidence that the placement of the dot relates to the center of the die, and has nothing to do with the letters "O" and "B," might be this image: [URL]https://www.coinarchives.com/01d2066daabe43126e62b60f42772d59/img/heritage/3082/image33225.jpg[/URL]. As you can see, the dot is not centered between the letters (it actually touches the upper part of the "B"), but appears almost exactly in the center of the coin. And thanks for the compliments on my coin. I chose it for the very expressive portrait of Galba, not for the dot on the reverse! That was just something I happened to notice. By the way, with this Galba, and counting the bronze asses I have for Caligula and Claudius, I suppose I'm now missing only Julius Caesar and Otho out of the "Twelve Caesars." I could probably buy a halfway decent Caesar elephant coin for a couple of hundred dollars more than I paid for the Galba -- not that I'm prepared to spend that much in the near future! -- but I think a nice-looking Otho coin is probably out of reach for me.[/QUOTE]
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