Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Roman Collector, post: 2477079, member: 75937&quot;]The first step in the process is to try to find the emperor or empress&#039;s name on the obverse inscription. This is often buried in the middle, after some abbreviated titles and names, and before other abbreviated titles and names. In the case of Green 18&#039;s coin of Diocletian, the obverse inscription reads:</p><p><br /></p><p>IMPCCVALDIOCLETIANVSAVG</p><p><br /></p><p>It is just a matter of noticing the name of an emperor or empress. It helps a lot to read a list of emperor&#039;s names so as to familiarize yourself. Some are similar. Don&#039;t mistake Constans for Constantine. There are emperors (and empresses) that bear the same name. Tetricus I and Tetricus II, for example. Faustina Sr. and Faustina Jr., and so on.</p><p><br /></p><p>So, once DIOCLETIANVS is recognized as Diocletian, it&#039;s a matter of noting what titles are associated with it.</p><p><br /></p><p>In this case, it&#039;s preceded by IMP, which means &quot;Imperator&quot; (Although translated as &quot;Emperor,&quot; it actually means &quot;leader of the army&quot; in Latin).</p><p><br /></p><p>Then there is a C, which stands for Caesar, a title.</p><p><br /></p><p>Then there is another C, which is an abbreviation for Diocletian&#039;s praenomen, or &quot;first name.&quot; Diocletian&#039;s praenomen was Caius. Romans always abbreviated their first name (often with a single letter); in fact, this practice indicated Roman citizenship.</p><p><br /></p><p>VAL is an abbreviation for Diocletian&#039;s nomen, Valerius. The nomen is a name carried by all members of an extended family or clan. These names typically end in -ius, -aius, -eius, or -eus.</p><p><br /></p><p>DIOCLETIANVS is the fellow&#039;s cognomen, or &quot;last (or family) name.&quot; The Diocletianus family was but one family in the Valerius clan.</p><p><br /></p><p>Then there follows an abbreviated title, AVG, which is short for Augustus, meaning &quot;revered&quot; in Latin. It means the person has acheived the rank of emperor. Augusta is the title of an empress.</p><p><br /></p><p>So that&#039;s step one. It&#039;s essential, because you won&#039;t know where to look in a catalog of coins for the particular coin otherwise.</p><p><br /></p><p>Step 2 to follow; it&#039;s getting late.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in