Roman Provential denominations

I just received my two new Elagabalus coins that I found online. These two coins are the Antioch S*C coinage.
One is a decent right-facing, radiate crown, McAlee 789b with a clasp (dot in a circle) at the top of the wreath.

The McAlee 789b is a 20mm, 6.24g. Most of my other S*G coins are falling in the 3.7-4.5g range. Just wondering what the heck denomination this would be? I haven't been able to find any of these Elagabalus S*C types in this weight range. Any help is appreciated.

 

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Hey since I have your attention...what's with the "C" hiding out under the portraits in some of these coins. If you look you can find a single "C" or like here a double "CC". I've noticed that these are not being called out in the legends either. Remember you have to spin these coins to read them! Start reading in the lower-left bust corner and rotate counter clockwise.

 

"double C" ANTΩNEINOC CЄ (CEBACTOC)

"single C" sometimes ANTΩNEINO - C

 

The basic unit is an assaria.

https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/introduction/worth

 

I think the actual word for a single coin is Assarion (Greek neuter singular) and the plural is Assaria (Greek neuter, plural).

 

That link is fine as far as it goes but it does not cover them all. The problem as I see it is that these coins were made to circulate in a restricted area and every city was perfectly free to use its own system for denominations, weights and markings. This only becomes a problem if money left its home base and was taken somewhere it was not known.
The article mentions the common 4 1/2 assaria coins but I like this Tomis 1 1/2 assaria of Philip II. I suspect (but do not know) there may have been a specific need for the odd denominations. Perhaps this represented the fair difference between two other coins common in the area and was used by moneychangers. I do not know. Theories are fine as long as we keep straight the difference between opinions, theories and facts.

 

A while back I posted an Antioch AE of Macrinus, and Al Kowalsky had some interesting things about the denominations/sizes of that era:

My post:

I recently got another Macrinus - an "SC" AE from Antioch. Now I have two! This features what I believe is the longer beard.

I had some trouble attributing it because I was unable to get an exact match on the obverse legend. Or did I? A bit confused, which is often the case with me and Roman Provincials ​

Macrinus Æ 18
(217-218 A.D.)
Syria, Seleucis & Pieria
Antiochia ad Orontem
AVT K M O CE MAKΡINOCC, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right / SC in wreath fastened with star, Δ above, Є below.
McAlee 723c. BMC386 (var.)
(7.52 grams / 18 mm)

Attribution Note:
The short obverse legend shows up on several examples online, but these were the lighter-weight examples (around 5 grams). I was unable to get an exact match with a full, clear attribution for a large one. Maybe they are the same? (Jan. 2020).​

Al's comments (I do not know how to work the Coin Talk "quote" function or member citations, so if anybody wants to give me a tutorial, that'd be great. Hopefully Al sees this - he knows a lot about these):

M.M., Your coin by visual comparison sure looks like McAlee 723c, however, the coin he illustrates weighs only 3.6 gm . He does illustrate an Aes coin (722a) 22 mm with a weight of 6.47 gm, listed as Ex. Rare. All the 723 coins a-d are listed as V. Rare. He does add an interesting footnote to 722a: "This unique coin appears to be a transitional type, similar in size & weight to the asses of Caracalla. Apparently there was a small initial issue of bronze coins on the weight standard of Caracalla (weighing c. 7 g) prior to the introduction of coinage to the reduced standard (c. 4 g)." I don't know if McAlee's speculation with this footnote holds water since all these coins are so rare . Was the weight standard on these small bronze coins tightly held, with so few examples to draw from it's hard to conclude.​

Link to that post:

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/billon-tetradrachm-of-emperor-macrinus.352988/page-2

 

This is all great information. I don't have enough research into the Elagabalus S*C coinage or personal examples yet. But I am working on it! It's just difficult to find good examples. I'm hoping my new coins are the rarer types. Time will tell.
Maybe my example is similar in that it was minted on the same weight standard or mint as the Caracalla. That's just me thinking out loud.

 

Can you expand on this? what would CEBACTOC stand for? Or the single C?

 

CEBACTOC: Sebsatos = Augustus

The CE is what you usually see for this type

If there is a single C it could be the result of a legend break, when there was not enough space for ANTΩNEINOC. I know some examples with this legend break.

Like here: https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=329281
ANTΩNEINO-C

If the legend ends on "ANTΩNEINOC C" the C means probably CEBACTOC again, but I didn't check if this short version exists for this type.

Frequently you will find also the abbreviation CEB

 

This appears to be what I am seeing. Thank you for the clarifications!

 

Here are some rubbings..it sucks when it looks like you have a full legend and then the letters are indistinguishable.

 

here's a negative version of the original coin image. The lettering shows better.