Liberator Orbis

[Adriaan78]

It took me some time but finally I was able to acquire one of my "holy grail" coins. I think it is a one of the better examples out there. Although the coin is not as rare as I first suspected it was though to find a decent one. It is often described as the emperor spearing a lion but actually the emperor has ahis right hand raised raised hand. It was probably struck to celebrate Constantine's decennalia.

[Victor]

congrats...it's an extraordinary coin.

[Gavin]

That is an amazing coin in amazing condition. Wonderfully detailed reverse.

[Heliodromus]

Great coin - super quality!

The emperor has already flung his spear - now sticking in side of the lion!

It's interesting that officina "T" always have the emperor holding shield, and P/S/Q never. Maybe single engraver per officina.

I'm curious where you found this one - didn't notice it in any auction - was it a local buy ?

[Lech Stępniewski]

It's interesting that officina "T" always have the emperor holding shield, and P/S/Q never. Maybe single engraver per officina.

Not always true.



That is why I am not sure that on Adriaan78's coin officina letter is T.

[Heliodromus]

Yes - I forgot about that specimen, but it's the only one out of 35 I have photos for that doesn't follow the pattern.

[Adriaan78]

Ah! I did not know that... I thought all examples with a shield were from officina T. Knowing  this I think the officina letter could very well be S... I found a nice article on these coins with a lot of examples (although the text was in French...). After comparing I will tentatively label the coin with officina S!

[Heliodromus]

After comparing I will tentatively label the coin with officina S!

Yes - after looking a bit closer, that seems to be correct. The bust styles are quite different between officinas, and yours is a good match for "S".

[Heliodromus]

Similarly, based on bust style, I think the top coin below, from British Museum, must also be officina S.

So that's three different officina S obv dies with the shield.