Let's See Some Antoninianii... - Coin Community Forum

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maridvnvm Pillar of the Community United Kingdom 2100 Posts	Posted 11/18/2008 09:05 am I thought it might be interesting to start a thread to parallel that on denarii with one to allow folks to illustrate their Ants. These are coins with the value of two denarii started by Caracalla and running through to the reformation of the coinage under Diocletian but doesn't include the radiate fractions after this reformation. They are identified by the radiate crown as opposed to the laurel wreath from the denarii. I thought I would get the whole thing going with one of the earliest Ants. by Caracalla. Caracalla Antoninianus Obv:- ANTONINVS PIVS AVG GERM, Radiate, cuirassed bust right, seen half from the back Rev:- VENVS VICTRIX, Venus standing left, holding Victory and spear, shield at side Minted in Rome circa A.D. 215 Reference:- RIC 311 var (Unlisted in RIC with Cuirassed bust, probably missed in error) A nice example of one of the earliest of the Ants. produced by Caracalla. Regards, Martin Report this Post to the Staff

NumisMattyUk Pillar of the Community United Kingdom 2217 Posts	Posted 11/18/2008 7:39 pm A lovely coin in good condition and thanks for sharing with us Edited by NumisMattyUk 11/18/2008 7:40 pm Report this Post to the Staff
Sir Ferrari Pillar of the Community United States 671 Posts	Posted 11/18/2008 8:26 pm That's a nice Caracalla example. I always liked the double denarii better than the regular denarii, they just seem to be made of a higher quality. Report this Post to the Staff
maridvnvm Pillar of the Community United Kingdom 2100 Posts	Posted 11/19/2008 04:25 am At this stage of the Roman Empire inflation has started to take hold. They needed to find a new way of paying the troops with the limited resources at their disposal. The silver had become heavily debased by this point and the new denomination didn't contain twice the silver of the denarius and was met with some resistance from the people and took some time to become really established. The debasement that had started at this point continued for many years to come until the silver content became nominal. Some of the earlier Ants. were quite nice indeed. I don't have that many of the earlier ones but will share another here. Elagabalus Antoninianus Obv:- IMP CAES M AVR ANTONINVS AVG, Radiate, draped bust right Rev:- MARS VICTOR, Mars advancing right, holding trophy and spear References:- RIC 122 (Scarce), RCV02 7491, RSC 112 Regards, Martin Report this Post to the Staff
t360 Pillar of the Community United States 2703 Posts	Posted 11/21/2008 11:19 pm Two very interesting Antoninianii. The depiction of Mars on the reverse of the Elagabalus looks quite different from Mars on my 1st century denarii. Report this Post to the Staff
maridvnvm Pillar of the Community United Kingdom 2100 Posts	Posted 11/22/2008 06:33 am I have skipped forward a bit here to the reign of Philip I. The debasement of the currency has continued and it is now relatively common to see some base metal appearing on the surface of the coins. Phillip I Antoninianus Obv:- IMP M IVL PHILIPPVS AVG, Radiate, draped and cuirassed bust right Rev:- P M TR P IIII COS II P P, Felicitas standing half-left, holding caduceus with right hand and cornucopia in left arm Minted in Antioch (2nd Issue). mid 247 to end of 247 AD Reference:- Ovari 28A, Bland 30, Cohen 136 (Cohen doesn't differentiate between mints). RIC -. RSC -. Whilst this coin is listed for Rome, this coin has the very distinctive style of the Antioch mint. One of a handful of such coins known. Regards, Martin Report this Post to the Staff
maridvnvm Pillar of the Community United Kingdom 2100 Posts	Posted 11/25/2008 04:23 am OK. Let's skip forward even more. Despite the debasement of the silver the coins can quite often give the appearance of being made of decent silver. Volusian Antoninianus Obv:- IMP CAE C VIB VOLVSIANO AVG, Radiate, draped and cuirassed bust right Rev:- VIRTVS AVGG, Virtus standing, head left, holding shield and spear; star in right field Reference:- RIC 187, RSC 88 Report this Post to the Staff
maridvnvm Pillar of the Community United Kingdom 2100 Posts	Posted 11/25/2008 04:27 am And other coins from the same period show their copper content quite readily. Valerian I Antoninianus Obv:- IMP C P LIC VALERIANVS P F AVG, Radiate, draped and cuirassed bust right Rev:- RESTITVT ORIENTIS, Female figure of the Orient presenting a wreath to Valerian Minted in Antioch. Reference:- RIC 287c, RSC 189 Martin Report this Post to the Staff
t360 Pillar of the Community United States 2703 Posts	Posted 11/25/2008 06:35 am Those three are in beautiful condition. It is a pleasure to look at the fine details! I am not sure I can recognize the distinctive style(s) of the Antioch mint. Could you explain what to look for? Report this Post to the Staff
maridvnvm Pillar of the Community United Kingdom 2100 Posts	Posted 11/25/2008 07:22 am It is best to compare style by placing an example from another mint alongside and view the coins together. I have included below a Rome mint equivalent to my Philip above (unfortunately not my own) for comparison. If you look at the two coins you should be able to see some distinctive stylistic differences. The engraving in Rome is more refined. The portrait from Antioch is cruder with a larger deeper eye and deeper brow furrows. The letters are typically more chunky too. I must admit that I find it difficult to express these stylistic differences in words but I hope that you can get an idea of what I mean. Regards, Martin Report this Post to the Staff
maridvnvm Pillar of the Community United Kingdom 2100 Posts	Posted 11/25/2008 07:38 am During the reign of Gallienus the coinage takes a sharp turn for the worse. The size of the Ant. declines and so does the silver quality. In fact the quality declines in many areas with flans becoming more irregular and the engraving and quality of strike much more variable than before leading to flat strikes and other anomalies. The following are examples of the production from this time. Obv:- GALLIENVS AVG, Radiate, cuirassed bust right Rev:- PAX AVG, Pax standing front, head left, holding olive branch, and transverse sceptre V in left field Reference:- RIC -. Gobl 366x Obv:- GALLIENVS AVG, Radiate bust right Rev:- VIRTVS AVGVSTI, Mars standing left holding olive branch and holding spear, "X" in left field Minted in Rome, X in left field. Reference:- RIC 330K (Scarce), RSC 1322. Gobl 636a Here you can see the debased metal the the emergence of "Silvering" rather than silver coins. There is little in the way of wear but the strike is slightly uneven, leading to the loss of some of the lettering and a slightly flat strike where the metal couldn't fill the die seen on the centre of the coin on both sides. Report this Post to the Staff
t360 Pillar of the Community United States 2703 Posts	Posted 12/05/2008 7:54 pm Quote: If you look at the two coins you should be able to see some distinctive stylistic differences. Yes, I can see what you mean, thanks for giving the examples for comparison! It is interesting that the Romans used a thin layer of silver on a base metal core to imitate silver coins. Of course no one was fooled. We took it one step further and used cheap white metal with no silver content at all on a base metal core to make our clad coinage. Report this Post to the Staff
maridvnvm Pillar of the Community United Kingdom 2100 Posts	Posted 12/06/2008 05:18 am At this point the Empire was breaking up and there were coins being produced in the "Gallic Empire". These coins also showed great variability in their production with some coins appearing to be decent quality silver but others showing their copper content. Postumus Antoninianus Obv:- IMP C POSTVMVS P F AVG, Radiate, draped bust right Rev:- NEPTVNO REDVCI, Neptune, standing left, holding dolphin and trident, to left forepart of vessel Reference(s) - Cohen 205. RIC 76 Bust Type A IMP C POSTVMVS P F AVG, Radiate, draped & cuirassed bust right FELICITAS AVG, Felicitas standing left with long caduceus & cornucopiae Reference(s) - Van Meter 10, RIC 58, RSC 39 Report this Post to the Staff
maridvnvm Pillar of the Community United Kingdom 2100 Posts	Posted 12/06/2008 05:26 am Before too long the silver content in the Gallic empire had decreased dramatically and they are generally found in their base metal form. The demand for coinage meant that some elements of quality control were abandoned. Flans are often ragged, small and appear in odd shapes. Minting errors occur with some regularity. Victorinus IMP C VICTORINVS P F AVG, Radiate, draped & cuirassed bust right PAX AVG, Pax standing left Mint I (probably Trier), Issue 3. (V in left field, * in right field) Reference(s) - RIC 118, Cohen 79 Tetricus I Obv:- IMP C TETRICVS P F AVG, Radiate, draped and cuirassed bust right Rev:- SALVS AVGG, Salus standing left, feeds serpent rising from altar Reference:- Cohen 154. RIC 126 The reverse is double struck with the head of Salus being seen in the upper left field. Tetricus II Obv:- C PIV ES(V TETRICV)S CAES, Radiate, draped and cuirassed bust right Rev:- (SPES) PVBLICA, Spes advancing left, holding flower and raising skirt Reference:- Cohen 87. RIC 270 Report this Post to the Staff
maridvnvm Pillar of the Community United Kingdom 2100 Posts	Posted 12/08/2008 09:58 am We can shoot forward a little to Aurelian. Aurelian restored the empire. Gaul is restored with the defeat (surrender) of Gaul by the Tetricii. The east is restored with the defeat of Vabalathus and Zenobia. Aurelian reforms the monetary system, which had fallen into decline. Mints are opened across the empire with the mint at Lugdunum being re-opened after being closed since the 1st century. The coinage is more closely controlled with the control over the quality of thecoinage being made much stronger. The Antoninianus forms the bulk of the coinage and there is the appearance of control marks on the coins. The control marks provide multiple pieces of information. There is the introduction of a value mark on many issues, taking the form of XXI or KA, which we currently interpret as the silver ratio in the coin being approximately 20:1. The remaining marks are often used to identify the city of production and the officina responsible for the production of the coins. All this is part of the quality control mechanisms in place to be able to track the output of the mints during a time period for each officina. Aurelian made full use of this reform to put out his political message. Here we have a couple of examples:- Obv:- IMP C AVRELIANVS AVG, Radiated and cuirassed bust right Rev:- RESTITVT ORBIS, Orbis Terrarum presenting wreath to Aurelian Minted in Antioch (H in centre field, XXI in exe) 5th emission. 274 - 275 A.D. Reference:- RIC 386 Bust Type F Here Aurelian is declaring himself as Restorer of the world. Obv:- IMP C AVRELIANVS AVG, Radiated cuirassed bust right Rev:- PACATOR ORBIS, Sol walking left, right hand raised, left hand holding whip Minted in Lugdunum (AL). End A.D. 274 to early A.D. 275 Reference:- Bastien 1 (9). RIC 6 Here Aurelian is declaring that he has brought peace to the world. Report this Post to the Staff
maridvnvm Pillar of the Community United Kingdom 2100 Posts	Posted 12/16/2008 11:25 am And along came Probus. Probus build on the reformed coinage introduced by Aurelian and moved on with it. He introduced a wide range of bust types, some of which are very rare and combined these with an equally wide range of reverses across the various mints to push out his political messages to the masses. Many of the coins carry a military / martial theme others extol the virtues of the emperor or other events. Obv:- IMP C M AVR PROBVS AVG, Radiate, cuirassed bust right. Rev:- VIRTVS PROBI AVG, Mars walking right, holding spear and trophy. Mint - Siscia (_ \| P / XXI) Emission 7 Officina 1. A.D. 280 Reference:- RIC 811 Bust type F. Alföldi type 96, n° 85 Obv:- IMP PROBVS P F AVG, Radiate, draped and cuirassed bust right. Rev:- CONCORDIA MILIT, Emperor standing right, clasping hand of Concordia. Minted in Siscia (XXIQ in exe) Emission 4, Officina 4. A.D. 278 Reference:- RIC 666 Bust type C. Alföldi type 23, n° 49 Obv:- IMP C M AVR PROBVS P AVG, Radiate, helmeted, cuirassed bust left, holding spear and shield Rev:- ADVENTVS AVG, Emperor riding left, right hand raised, left holding sceptre Minted in Siscia (XXIS in exe) Emission 5, Officina 2. A.D. 278 Reference:- RIC 629 Bust type G Obv:- IMP C M AVR PROBVS P F AVG, Radiate bust left in imperial mantle, holding sceptre surmounted by eagle Rev:- SOLI INVICTO, Sol in spread quadriga, holding globe Minted in Siscia (XXIVI in exe) Emission 4, Officina 6. A.D. 277 Reference:- RIC 776 Bust type H Obv:- IMP C M AVR PROBVS AVG, Radiate, cuirassed bust right Rev:- VIRTVS PROBI AVG, Emperor galloping right, spearing enemy whose shield lies beneath horse Minted in Serdica (KA•A• in exe) Emission 4 Officina 1. 277 A.D. Reference:- RIC 878 var. Bust type F (RIC does not list this bust type for this entry) A nice bust but from slightly worn reverse dies. Obv:- IMP C M AVR PROBVS AVG, Radiate, cuirassed bust left in elaborate cuirass decorated with Medusa medallion & holding Vitoriola (Victory on globe, facing left, holding wreath) in right hand, palm up Rev:- VIRTVS AVG, Soldier standing left, holding Victory and spear and leaning on shield Minted in Ticinum(QXXT) Emission 2 Officina 4. A.D. 276 Reference:- Cohen unlisted. RIC 435 var. (This bust type not listed in RIC or Cohen) Die match is illustrated in Bastien's Buste Monetaire... pl. 126 number 11 Report this Post to the Staff
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