At the risk of looking foolish I realized I had formed an idea in my head of what this means but I don't think I have it right. I thought an emission of a particular coin referred to a minor change in the design of a particular type (not merely a change in dies) that was not worthy of declaring a whole new type (e.g. new RIC number). I thought it would be easy to clarify this but I cannot find a clear definition of what this means. Lots of references to it, but no clear definition. Once I sort that out I am also interested in how the different emissions were determined and whether they are listed in one standard reference work that everyone agrees with - or is there some debate? Since us coin collectors love to debate the smallest details on these coins a better question might be how much debate is there? Your sage advice is most appreciated. If you have some examples that illustrate the concept that would be even better! Thanks!
https://coins.ha.com/c/ref/glossary.zx Emission sequence The order in which die states are struck. Also, the die use sequence for a particular issue.
emissions are simply issues, designated by the different mintmarks, field marks etc. for example I will refer to the VLPP series from Sisica. I have a page with a chart - http://www.constantinethegreatcoins.com/sis/ the 1st emission is ASIS✶ with the full reverse legend of VICTORIAE the 2nd emission is ASIS with full legend the 3rd emission is ASIS• will full legend, this issue eventually has a change to the reverse with I on altar for off. A and B; and an S on altar for off. gamma,delta, and epsilon. It is still the same emission (ASIS•) but coins get different RIC numbers that are otherwise identical except for altar letters. the 4th emission is •ASIS• with a shorter reverse legend of VICT. the 5th emission is ASIS✶ with short legend there is another emission that RIC calls "irregular" ASIS• and at least one more emission not noted in RIC- •ASIS✶ below is a RIC VII Siscia 61 and Siscia 74, which are from the same series (emission 3) but different RIC numbers because of the I on the altar of RIC 73
Thanks everyone for the help - great info in that video. I have a follow on question related to the way RIC determined their emissions - I am assuming RIC is not claiming that these emissions follow each other in time, e.g. the 2nd emission coins were minted after the 1st emission ones. It would be really difficult to get enough evidence to figure out the timing, although I guess if you got lucky and had the same obverse die with two different emissions you could time them based on the wear of the obverse die. That cow has been eating some spicy grass!
below is a picture of an issue from RIC VII for the fifth emission of the Sisican VLPP series of ASIS star with the date beside it. RIC does arrange these chronologically.
