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Need Help Identifying This Ancient Nummus, Follis, Ae4?

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Author Replies: 1 / Views: 53Next Topic  
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United States
266 Posts
 Posted Yesterday   11:22 pm Show Profile   Bookmark this topic Add jdsstrat to your friends list Get a Link to this Message Number of Subscribers
I was on a real roll tonight, identifying old, worn-out coins in my grandfather's collection until I came to this one. I can't seem to break through: is it Roman, Greek, copper, bronze... is it even real?

What I can tell you for a fact is its diameter, 15mm and mass, 1.29 grams.

What do you think?

Need-Help-Identifying-This-Ancient-Nummus,-Follis,-Ae4?
Need-Help-Identifying-This-Ancient-Nummus,-Follis,-Ae4?

P.S. In better light, there are three lines of print on the reverse: the first line looks like a V O S, the next line looks like a W and the last line looks like it begins with M V. But I wouldn't swear to any of these.
Edited by jdsstrat
Yesterday 11:33 pm
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Sap's Avatar
Australia
16974 Posts
 Posted Today  2H 6M ago  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Sap to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
It's a Late Roman bronze. The reverse type is "votive"; it's a bit blurry but the central inscription says "VOT X MVLT XX". Several emperors issued coins with that type - essentially, any of the mid-to-late emperors who managed to reign for 10 years issued this design. The reverse legend very roughly translates to "vows made on year 10, many more for year 20".

Options are: Julian II, Valens, Valentinian I, Valentinian II, Theodosius I and Arcadius. Of these names, "DN THEODOSIVS PF AVG" is the best-fit for the surviving obverse lettering, so that would make your coin Theodosius I. The mintmark might be SMK, but that's even harder to be sure of. Numista similar example: https://en.numista.com/318528

It's certainly "overcleaned", but it might have been heavily corroded to start with. I'd assume it to be genuine.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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