Maximianus GENIO IMPERATORIS from Alexandria with spelling error

[Victor]

This coin has a spelling error in the obverse-- the engraver left out the S of SEN.




Maximianus
A.D. 308-310
Æ Follis   23x25mm    5.4g
IMP C MAXIMIANVS P F EN AVG; laureate head right.
GENIO IMPERATORIS; Genius standing left, holding patera & cornucopiae; Kin left field, B over P in right field.
In ex. ALE
RIC VI Alexandria 102

[Severus]

Interestingly, mine has the exact same mistake, although it is clearly a different die. I wonder is this is an instance of one engraver doing the legend and a different one doing the portrait?

[Lech Stępniewski]

Interesting and worth to note. Severus, could you give the weight and the diameter of your coin, please? BTW, there are more spelling errors than usual on coins from Alexandria mint. Probably they knew better the Greek alphabet.

[Severus]

25mm, 6.1g

[Heliodromus]

It seems that the "EN AVG" error may actually be more common than "SEN AVG" !

Of the 8 specimens I'm aware of, 2 dies are SEN, and 5 are EN. Victor's coin is an obverse die link to CNG 233.383.

It must say something about how the engravers worked to propagate an error like this, as well as likely not being Latin literate. Maybe for each new die they used an old (error) one to copy ?

[Lech Stępniewski]

25mm, 6.1g

Thanks Severus!

[Victor]

It must say something about how the engravers worked to propagate an error like this, as well as likely not being Latin literate. Maybe for each new die they used an old (error) one to copy ?

Yes, that is the only explanation.

[Lech Stępniewski]

Of the 8 specimens I'm aware of, 2 dies are SEN, and 5 are EN. Victor's coin is an obverse die link to CNG 233.383.

Hi Ben! Could you send me the separate pictures of these two other coins with EN, please? This green one and B-W top row to right. It is a really interesting case when obvious error is considerably more common than correct spelling.

[Severus]

The style of the lettering on the -EN coins looks different to me than the two SEN coins, IMO. Look at the E in PF EN AVG in the coins on the right - in several of them, it is oversize, compare the size of the E in SEN on the left. And the P's are different also. I bet it's just one single engraver who cut several dies and kept making the same mistake, while the other engravers spelled the dies correctly.

Coins of Maximianus as Senior Augustus are not exactly common from Alexandria mint, there can't have been all that many dies - could be that most of them were created by the one engraver? 

[Heliodromus]

That seems quite likely, especially since all are from same officina (it seems engravers were usually dedicated to each workshop).

I just noticed that on your coin the "E" of "EN" seems to be engraved over an "S"  - or he started engraving an "S" then continued as an "E" !

[Lech Stępniewski]

I just noticed that on your coin the "E" of "EN" seems to be engraved over an "S"  - or he started engraving an "S" then continued as an "E" !

Interesting! He apparently regarded SEN as a mistake and immediately tried to correct it. This explains why we know about seven EN (not eight as I have written to you, because Severus' coin = Vico) and only two SEN.