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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;nicholasz219, post: 3049377, member: 75641&quot;]...actually, The Retrograde Letter, but &quot;The Scarlet Letter&quot; sounds way more interesting.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>So I bought this antoninianus of Probus as I usually do because it was attractive and I was intrigued by the retrograde letter above the exergue in the center field on the reverse.&nbsp; As it turns out, I learned a bit about the Antioch Mint and something about the evolution of the letters digamma and &#039;F.&#039;</p><p><br /></p><p>I spoke with Greg Kryszczuk from Probus.net about this coin because it was so unusual to see the retrograde S or digamma in the center field.&nbsp; I looked around for similar examples in the references and found none.&nbsp; I was not certain even if it was a retrograde S or digamma which is actually quite a problem when you are attributing a coin.&nbsp; An S makes no sense because Antioch used Greek letters to number their officinas and since S is used to represent the Latin word &quot;Secunda&quot; either the coin was not from Antioch or it was a retrograde digamma.&nbsp; Greg confirmed that it is in fact a retrograde digamma.&nbsp; He also included an excerpt from a paper by Marcus Tod about Attic alphabet forms.&nbsp; The long and short of the relevant passage is this:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]762646[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>As you can see in figure 1a., number 9 looks an awful lot like an &#039;s.&#039;&nbsp; If you reverse that said &#039;s&#039; you end up with:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]762647[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p><b>Probus, Antoninianus, CLEMENTIA TEMP</b></p><p>AR Antoninianus</p><p>Probus</p><p>Augustus: 276 - 282AD</p><p>Issued: 280AD</p><p>22.5 x 19.5mm 5.10gr 6h</p><p>O: IMP CM AVR PROBVS PF AVG; Radiate and draped bust, right, seen from the back.</p><p>R: CLEMENTIA TEMP; Probus, standing right on left, holding scepter, receiving Victory holding wreath from Jupiter, standing left on right.</p><p>Exergue: Retrograde Digamma above line; XXI, below line.</p><p>Antioch Mint</p><p>RIC V-2 922var. (Radiate, draped bust); Cohen 99;Brenot, Claude &amp; Pflaum, Hans-Georg, Revue Numismatique, 1965/67, Syria Hoard II, #85.</p><p>Aorta: B87, O38, R13, T96, M1.</p><p><br /></p><p>I had never really understood how a cursive digamma would be related to a single gamma at all until I saw the form number 1 in figure 1a.&nbsp; A regular gamma with a half size reversed gamma attached to the downward stroke makes perfect sense when you think about it and the form that we encounter with coins from the third century.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>I spoke with Dane from Wildwinds and she referred me to an article concerning a Syrian Hoard which at least confirmed that the radiate, draped bust type existed since it was not in RIC even though it is practically identical to RIC 922.&nbsp; I share the link here in case there is anyone who could use the information.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://www.persee.fr/doc/numi_0484-8942_1965_num_6_7_930" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.persee.fr/doc/numi_0484-8942_1965_num_6_7_930" rel="nofollow">http://www.persee.fr/doc/numi_0484-8942_1965_num_6_7_930</a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>I include as a bonus this other sweet coin of Probus.&nbsp; Originally misattributed to Siscia by RIC, Pink considers this the first emission of Rome.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]762660[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p><b>Probus, Antoninianus, PM TR P COS PP</b></p><p>AR Antoninianus</p><p>Probus</p><p>Augustus: 276 - 282AD</p><p>Issued: 277AD</p><p>22.0 x 21.0mm 3.78gr 6h</p><p>O: IMP CM AVR PROBVS AVG; Radiate, cuirassed bust, right.</p><p>R: PM TR P COS PP; Probus standing left, raising hand and holding scepter, standard on either side.</p><p>Exergue: XXIε</p><p>Rome Mint; First emission, fifth officina.</p><p>RIC V-2 Rome 607</p><p><br /></p><p>I find this type interesting because even though it is rated common, I do not see the reverse type much at all.&nbsp; There is a note on the only example (XXIB) on Wildwinds stating how RIC had this issue attributed to Siscia but Pink later reclassified it as the first emission of Rome.&nbsp; It is also not listed in Aorta as extant either.&nbsp; It is just a funny little coin that fell through the cracks.</p><p><br /></p><p>Post whatever you like of course, but if you have any numismatic mysteries or things you learned recently in the course of investigating, please add here![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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