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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Severus Alexander, post: 8322141, member: 84744&quot;]If the hypothesis fails the style test (as [USER=120820]@Heliodromus[/USER] suggests it does), can we think of something else the symbols might stand for?&nbsp; It would have to be something that correlates well but not perfectly with officina, and which would be useful to record on the coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>One possibility: presumably there was a mint official in charge of each officina.&nbsp; But maybe some of them occasionally did double (or triple or quadruple...) duty when an officina was lacking its chief official for some reason.&nbsp; Then the symbols could stand for the particular official ultimately responsible for producing the coin.&nbsp; This would be useful to keep track of, since if something went wrong not only could you blame the right office, but also the right person.</p><p><br /></p><p>I can imagine the sort of situation that led to instituting such a system:</p><blockquote><p>The governor: &quot;Marcus, the fifth officina&#039;s product has been found to have reduced silver content.&nbsp; This is absolutely unacceptable.&nbsp; Please explain yourself!&quot;</p><p>Marcus: &quot;My humble apologies, governor, but I&#039;m quite certain the responsibility for this heinous oversight was not mine.&nbsp; Do you recall when Gaius Publilius was filling in for me during my bout of dysentery?&nbsp; I always suspected he was skimming off some metal! <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie81" alt=":shifty:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />&quot;</p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p>Any other ideas?[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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