I picked up this the other day amongst a large collection of mostly more modern British coins. I think I am safe with it being Roman and from the Alexandrian mint, but I am unfamiliar with the legends on these coins so I can't decide which emperor. (My gut feel is Severus Alexander, but I may be a mile out!) Can someone put me right?
You are correct about the mint but the style is much later than Severus Alexander... from the later years of the Roman Egypt tetradrachms when the portraits became generic. It's Diocletian.
Excellent and thank you. I only have up to book 3 of Sear, so I have no reference for Diocletion Alexandrian coins - can anyone give me a reference and/or more detail for this one? Thank you,
The full obverse legend (cheating and filling it in using Emmett's book) is AKΓOVAΛΔIOKΛHTIANOCCEB: A(VTOKPATΩP) = Imperator K(AICAP) = Caesar Γ(AIOC) = Gaius OVAΛ(EPIOC) = Valerius ΔIOKΛHTIANOC = Diocletianus CEB(ACTOC) = Augustus The reverse is Dikaiosyne standing left, holding scales and cornucopia, with the abbreviation for the regnal year of issue (L B, regnal year 2) across the field. One reference is Emmett 4033, year 2.
Nice coin. I got my first Alexandrian Roman tetradrachm about 2 years ago. I was not impressed at first, but I have really come to appreciate them. I just got these two recently whilst bottom-feeding on eBay. They were unattributed and I had a heck of a time figuring them out - they may still be wrong. For coins I feel I don't have right, or had to guess at, I've started putting "attribution notes" on the back of the flip - so in the future when I hope I'm smarter I can see why I came to the wrong conclusions I did. I really like the portrait and the purplish crud on the top one - the second one is pretty poor, but it has vexilla, which I didn't know came on these tets. Egypt Potin Tetradrachm Maximianus Year 7 (291-292 A.D.)? Alexandria Mint MAΞIMI−ANOC CEB, laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / Nike flying right, raising wreath right hand, palm over left shoulder, L [Z]? across fields, star right. Milne 5031; Curtis 2101. (8.32 grams / 18 mm) Attribution Note: The obverse legend is shorter than the ones I've seen; but later years seem to have used it for Max. Star in the reverse field also seems to be later. The second letter of the date is mostly off-flan. LZ (7) or LS (10) are possibilities Curtis 2101 or 2102 (I don't know the difference). Egypt Potin Tetradrachm Aurelian Year 4 (272-273 A.D.) Alexandria Mint A K Λ ΔOM AVP[HΛIANOC CEB]?, laureate and cuirassed bust right / eagle standing left, head turned right, between two vexilla; LΔ above. Milne 4396; Geissen 3077. (8.41 grams / 17 mm) Attribution Note: The obverse legend is difficult to make out and I am not sure it matches the description.
Diocletian, Maximianus and many other rulers tended to start their reigns with a longer obverse legend and later shorten it to just the name and major title. Below is a later Diocletian showing the short legend. ΔIOKΛHTIANOC = Diocletianus CEB(ACTOC) = Augustus A tip that sometimes helps is to look for the tiny o in Diocletian. It can be the third letter on short legend coins or in the middle on top of the head on the longer legend coins. You don't have to read the whole legend to recognize Diocletian. If the coin is small and dumpy and has a tiny o that could be more of a dot, consider Diocletian. This is year nine. The first step in IDing Alexandrians comes before you look at legends. Tetradrachms of the early part of the third century are closer to the size of a stack of quarters while the end (Diocletian and friends) are more like a stack of dimes. Pay attention to coins you see in hand and apply the size clues that help you know what legends are reasonable to consider. This is a problem for those of us whose only references are online. That is why I love coin shows where you can see and handle coins with such clues.
Here's my year 2 of Diocletian: Diocletian, AD 284-305. Roman billon tetradrachm, 19.2 mm, 7.24 g, 12 h. Egypt, Alexandria, AD 285-6. Obv: Α Κ Γ ΟVΑΛ ΔΙΟΚΛΗΤΙΑΝΟC CЄΒ, laureate and cuirassed bust, right. Rev: Athena seated left, holding Nike and resting on scepter, shield at side; L B (= regnal year 2) in field. Refs: Dattari 5638; BMCG 2485; Milne 4765; Cologne 3211; RCV 12856.
DIOCLETIAN Potin Tetradrachm OBVERSE: AV G OVA DIOKLHTIANOC CEB, laureate, cuirassed bust right REVERSE: Athena standing left, holding Nike in right hand,shield in left hand, year LD in left field Struck at Alexandria, Egypt, 286-287 AD 8.3g, 19mm Milne 4750 DIOCLETIAN Tetradrachm OBVERSE: A K Γ OYAΛ ΔIOKΛHTIANOC CEB, laureate draped bust right REVERSE: LA, Elpis standing left, holding flower, a long sash (?) hanging from her arm, & clutching hem of robe. Struck at Alexandria, Egypt, 284/285 AD 6.6g, 20mm Milne 4750
I do have a Diocletian - as Doug mentioned, it has the tiny dot for an O - Egypt Potin Tetradrachm Diocletian Year 5 (288/289 A.D.) Alexandria Mint A K Γ OYA Λ ΔIOKΛ[HTIANOC] CEB], laureate and cuir. bust r. / Alexandria standing left holding head of Serapis and sceptre, star right, L-Є across. Milne 4915; Emmett 4025. (7.98 grams / 17 mm)
Emmett is a decent book but lacks many photos. https://www.amazon.com/Alexandrian-...words=alexandrian+coins&qid=1572781693&sr=8-1
