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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 2751157, member: 19463&quot;]Ajax beat me! Good job.</p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>Diocletian. </b>AD 284-305. Antoninianus (25mm, 3.35 g, 6h). Londinium (London) mint. Struck under Carausius, AD 287-293. Radiate and cuirassed bust right / Pax standing left, holding branch and sceptre; S-P/[MLXXI]. RIC V 5. VF, brown patina, a bit off-center.</p><p><br /></p><p>This antoninianus of Diocletian was struck at the mint of London (MLXXI mintmark off flan)&nbsp; by the British usurper Carausius who was making an attempt to get the mainstream Roman emperors Diocletian and Maximianus to accept him as their brother Augustus in the North. It did not work. Coins of this issue range from scarce to rare.&nbsp; I did not previously have one of Diocletian.</p><p><br /></p><p>The reverse read PAX AVGGG MLXXI.&nbsp; The crucial third G is very weak on this coin and the London mint mark is totally missing.&nbsp; Other than those very important faults, the coin is quite nice with excellent facial details.&nbsp; Most would grade it VF but there is no wear to speak of.&nbsp; The flan was so thin that it did not fill the die on either side.&nbsp; For wear, I&#039;d call it EF but the strike is really bad.&nbsp; I will not be sending it off to be slabbed so we will never know how it would grade.&nbsp; The thin flan may possibly have been the result of the coin being struck on a previously used flan flattened by a hammer.&nbsp; I can, with great imagination, see faint remnants of letters in the flat area on the obverse border.&nbsp; I sure wish I could say what the undertype was but the fact is that I can not even prove that it is an overstrike.&nbsp; I can dream!</p><p><br /></p><p>There are at least two styles of portrait used at London for this issue.&nbsp; I have seen more of what I term the thinner faced one but I prefer the slightly fuller face seen here.&nbsp; I&#039;m also fond of the detail on Pax&#039;s face and body detail.&nbsp; We all are allowed to believe our children are cute.</p><p><br /></p><p>This is my second London mint Pax issue of this series.&nbsp; Belowis my Maximianus which has the MLXXI mintmark but is missing the entire GGG (the important part!!!).&nbsp; I feel lucky to have the coins.&nbsp; Those of you with higher standards can leave these for me.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]630224[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>I do not (yet) have a Carausius from this issue from London but I do have the same coin as issued by the &#039;C&#039; mint.&nbsp; &#039;C&#039; has been placed in more than one place by different students.&nbsp; If I had to name a town I suppose I might go with Colchester (Colonia Camulodunum) but do believe I&#039;ll wait for the UK experts to fight this out and convince everyone.&nbsp; Meanwhile I call it &#039;C&#039;.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]630223[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>My best coin of the series was my cheapest from a dealer in 2002.&nbsp; In addition to being pretty and full legend the obverse legend is the scarce variant ending PF<b>I</b>AVG.&nbsp; The reverse is PROVIDAVGGG and is all on the flan.&nbsp; It has been on my Favorites list for years.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]630222[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Post what you feel appropriate but PLEASE post any of this AVGGG series you might have.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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