Late Roman Bronze Coins
Coin talk => Late Roman Bronze coins => Topic started by: Heliodromus on February 21, 2021, 08:25:13 AM
This one just sold on eBay.
It's RIC VI Nicomedia 66c. Mintmark should be SMN<officina> in exergue. This one is SMN<gamma>.
What's interesting is the additional <gamma> below the patera. It's notable that this is same as the officina letter, but it'd be a bit of an unexpected error since Nicomedia hadn't yet been using officina marks in field (they would in the following issue).
If you look closely, to left of this superfluous <gamma> there's also what looks like the bottom of two diagonal lines like the bottom of a V ("\ /"), which is hard to explain.
Any thoughts? Is this just an error, or an overstrike (if so, of what?). What is that "\ /" ?
I think that is probably the liquid flowing from the patera, though maybe poorly engraved or poorly struck or just poorly preserved. The two lines to the left could be explained the same way.
If it was double struck then the "\ /" and extra "delta" should match, which they don't. Could be overstruck on a different type, but which?
The extra "delta" really does look like a delta - very straight lines and sharp corner. The "\ /" would make a bit more sense as remnants of the liquid being poured from a patera, although given the positioning, it seems that'd have to come from an overstrike.
I'd have bought it as a curiosity, but I generally prefer coins that are typical rather than atypical, for potential illustrative purposes.