I have this coin from Alexandria Troas, and it took me a while to attribute it. It is neither listed in Bellinger: Coins of Troy (1961), nor in the more accessible SNG catalogues. Finally, I found it in RPC, vol. IX, as no. 492: Civic issue, Alexandria Troas, Roman Empire (province Asia), AE22, ca. 251–260. Obv: CO ALE[X TRO], turreted, draped, cuirassed bust of Tyche right, behind her, vexillum inscribed CO AV. Rev: [CO]L AV[G] TR[OAD], statue of Apollo Smintheus standing on short column facing, holding patera over lighted tripod left and bow, tree (?) right. 22mm, 4.41g. Ref: Bellinger –, SNG Copenhagen –, SNG von Aulock –, BMC –, RPC IX, 492. Yet, this attribution led me to another question which I can't quite solve, and thus I'm turning to this forum. The slightly weird, large detail right of Apollo is not mentioned in the description in RPC IX, and I wonder what is supposed to be. Both specimens listed in RPC Online (here) have it, too: So, what do we have here? I can think of the following possibilities and would like to hear your opinions: 1.) Die damage: If I see correctly, both my coin and the two RPC coins come from the same dies. (I am rather bad at identifying die matches and thus a bit cautious.) Could this simply be the result of a damaged reverse die? It looks unlike any other die damage I have seen and I thus consider this possibility unlikely, but I am also not a truly experienced collector. Types without the large detail on the right exist and are listed by Bellinger. 2.) A tree: Some of the civic issues from Alexandria Troas show a cypress tree, for example RPC IX, no. 493: Looking at these coins, it appears likely that the object on my coin is a cypress tree, too. Yet, if that's the case, why did the authors of RPC decide not to mention it? 3.) A tree and a distracted engraver: As already said, I suspect both RPC coins as well as mine to come from the same dies. Maybe there was only one reverse die of this type, since an unmindful or especially creative engraver combined the usual facing Apollo reverse (Bellinger A473) with the Apollo standing left and next to tree reverse (Bellinger A 472)? The two types are actually quite similar and could easily be confused: If that was the case and we regarded my coin the result of an engraver going wild, would you still consider it to be its own type, or would it count as something along the lines of a variant or a "mint error"?
Interesting! I suspect it is a stylized cypress tree which simply wasn't mentioned in the description of the RPC coin.
