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Message:: [QUOTE="DonnaML, post: 4281338, member: 110350"]Interestingly, if you look at the reverse of the coin I posted, both the "V's" in the SAECVLARES AVGG legend also look very much like "U's," just like the V in the exergue.  That's not the case on the obverse, for which the die was clearly carved by a different person.  It also doesn't seem to be true of the reverse of your coin, on which the "V's" in the legend look like "V's," by contrast to the V in the exergue.  Still, I think it demonstrates that there was some personal stylistic variation in the way particular letters/numbers were carved. And, in any event, a brief Google search confirmed for me that "U" did not appear for the first time as a separate letter from "V" in the written Latin alphabet vntil the 1300s, i.e., abovt 1,100 years after these coins were issved.  And wasn't vsed vniversally for another few hvndred years after that.[/QUOTE]