A Few Coins From And A Few Questions About Viminacium

nice coins bobbyhelmet I also have some more coins of this type coming, I like the coin I got from you. I dont have a coin like that one coming so it will have a spot.

I believe that Roman Provinical coins are ignored as a whole. No new books have been written especially in english for a long time. As far as I know the only on line reference for these coins is Moushmov.

Give RIC a break. The reason it has the I in the name is that it coverse Imperial issues and not Provincials. There is a series of books on Roman Provincial Coins (RPC) in the works but only a couple of them have been released. The later volumes will be huge since there are so many coins. They are not small and not cheap. There are many Provincial coins that are very rare and equally spectacular. I know a collector with some beauties that make can you cry.
http://www.amazon.com/Roman-Provinc...01085&sr=1-1

While collecting Viminacium, be on the watch for the Province Dacia coins that look similar but have different legends and an eagle instead of a bull. I only have one but I'll post it here as an ID challenge.

Not Philip

Of course, not sure why but my brain was just not registering the fact that these were provincial and would therefore not be in RIC. At new for 'just' $549.93 I don't think I will be getting a copy of RPC somehow.

At the risk of asking another silly question what exactly makes a mint 'provincial' in RICs eyes? Is it the same as the dictionary definition? I would probably consider London to be provincial but its in RIC.

Doug, the bust on you coin looks like Gordian, the text would make me think Volusian but I cant get that to fit with 'ANV'

AN V is year 5 by their system which was not the same as the one used in Viminacium.

A Provincial is a coin issued by a city for local use and not backed by the central authority. These would not be required to be accepted in other places. Most, not all, were bronzes. Many were propoganda for the city in some way. They were usually required to have the portrait of the emperor or family member but a few 'semi-autonomous' issues were allowed without one. Most Provincials used Greek legends. A few full 'Colonies' (a special honor usually meaning the city was founded as a retirement city for legionaries or honored in some special way) used Latin. Viminacium was one of these.

It is very common for a Provincial to have the city named on the reverse but it usually takes the form of the genitive plural so it should be read as "of the people of Marcianopolis' or 'of the Marcianopolitans'. Sometimes the legend also includes other text including the names of issuing officials, claims of special honors received by the city (my favorite is AMK abbreviating the three words for First, Best and Most Beautiful).

Cities made a lot of decisions as to how coins were designed so we have many different fabrics, sizes, denominations, weight standards and types. Some were extremely well designed and professionally produced. Others were crude. Some commemoratives were huge but there are very small (often semi-autonomous) as well. Some larger cities (Caesarea, Alexandria) made silver.

Provincials became more scarce as more branch mints started making Imperials around the Empire. Diocletian (First Tetrarchy) ended issues of provincials at Alexandria so after him we see only mintmarked Imperial style coins. Some cities made the switch earlier than Alexandria. A few of the same cities that previously produced provincials later had Imperial mints so you can get a Provincial of Serdica for Geta but a Serdica of Probus is Imperial. There were even a few examples where a city made Latin legend denarii of Imperial style and provincial bronzes in Greek at the same time but I do not know if they were located in the same building.

I recall a time that I considered Provincials to be too rare and expensive for me. The finds that came to light after the invention of the metal detector and the opening of diplomatic relations between East and West made some types much more easily available.

Hope this helps?

Roman Provincial coins seem fairly interesting to me and I may start collecting some, sometime in the future. I'm sure once I end up finding most common emperors, the rest will be very expensive. My very first ancient coin is a Roman Provincial. It's during the time of Augustus.

RPC 1651

Cohor Prae Phil

Finally getting around to taking some pictures. Here are a couple of mine.

Gordian III: IMP GORDIANVS PIVS FEL AVG, PMS COL VIM, AN III. sestertius, AMNG# 83.





Trajan Decivs: IMP TRIANVS DECIVS AVG, PMS COL VIM, AN XII, Pick# 132