Hello all. I need a judgment call, the mintmark on this to me could be any of the four ID's below, I know the one I think or wish it to be, however I have no idea what D3 & D4 mean for Bust types... Please let me know your thoughts after a review of my uploaded photos..?? Thanks Steven Wildwinds ID's Mintmark Bust Type Rarity Alexandra: RIC VII 63. SMALB. D4 facing left Roma Scarce. Alexandra: RIC VII 70. SMALB. D4 facing left Roma R2 Antioch: RIC VII 91. SMANB D3 facing left Roma R5 Antioch: RIC VII 9. SMANB D3 facing left Roma R5. (Oval on shoulder of wolf 330-335 AD.)
D4 has a plume on the helmet not present on D3. This is found on RIC VII page 88. I regularly waste my breath with my opinion that people should either buy RIC or not worry about the RIC catalog numbers. Just copying them from hearsay, third party sources leads to errors. I donot have an Alexandria D3 and the D$ coins vary in the size/details of the plume. This one has a weak oval on shoulder of wolf that would show better on a finer specimen. Below is a D3 from Kysikos mint. My level of interest in these coins does not extend to plume level but the distinction was made in RIC so many people find it of interest.
Yours is from Alexandria, so scratch Antioch off your list. The difference between 63 and 70 is the size of the module. There was a debasement and the later coins (70) were smaller. Here's the footnote in RIC VII about this: Here is the key to the bust types for the Urbs Roma series from RIC. Not as helpful as Doug's examples, but it's something you can print out. If this is a series you would like to collect, I would encourage you -- as has Doug -- to not rely on Wildwinds, ORC, dealer's sites, etc., for your attributions but to buy the volume of RIC yourself. Here are three examples of coins with plumes:
Good advice, but unfortunately this series spans two volumes: V.7 & V.8, each of which will run you around $150. So maybe Doug's comment- -makes more sense in this case.
