Control Symbols - Coin Community Forum

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Author	Replies: 6 / Views: 1,071
Bing Pillar of the Community United States 4253 Posts	Posted 12/14/2011 08:56 am I have recently posted coins I have purchased that have control symbols in the mintmark. I am pretty sure these were intended to prevent fakes at the time of minting. My question concerns the symbols themselves. Is there any meaning that can be assigned to each symbol? I am attaching the reverse images of my latest two coins with control symbols as examples. The first has what is described as a "zigzag" and the second has a "retrograde R". Edited by Bing 12/14/2011 1:18 pm Report this Post to the Staff

Doucet Pillar of the Community United States 1315 Posts	Posted 12/14/2011 3:31 pm You may have already checked here, but Helvetica has reference to these marks on the excel spread sheets (fel temp) under the Notes tab.....scroll down a bit. There isn't much info as to what their meaning or purpose was but they are described and labeled. Your second coin looks to be SYM2 and your first coin maybe SYM1. I have never found much about what these marks are. The LRBC doesn't mention them but has a lot of info about other marks such as stars, dots, wreaths etc. Report this Post to the Staff
dougsmit Pillar of the Community United States 1549 Posts	Posted 12/14/2011 4:10 pm I recall reading somewhere that these were letters of the local language in Siscia but do not recall theories on their meaning. Since they change along with the officina marks, they could be a repeat of that number but they also could be a code like the EQVITI series of Probus or the HPKOYLI series of Diocletian. Why? Don't know. Report this Post to the Staff
bobbyhelmet Pillar of the Community United Kingdom 2838 Posts	Posted 12/14/2011 7:58 pm I know that at one point Tripolis used the following for workshops: 1 = * 2 = crescent/wreath 3 = T I also have the following recorded for workshops but cant remember which mint / time it was used! 1 = * 2 = branch 3 = • 4 = wreath 5 = thunderbolt 6 = crescent 7 = crescent with dot I suspect most of these marks had some kind of primary or secondary meaning along with them being series indicators but we may never know for sure. Report this Post to the Staff
Bing Pillar of the Community United States 4253 Posts	Posted 12/14/2011 9:09 pm I appreciate the replies. But you would think that there would be some kind of record to show not only the why of using a symbol, but what the symbol represents. We have enormous volumes of information the Romans handed down over the centuries, but so little is known about these markings and other aspects of coinage. Too bad. I think it would have been interesting to know the Roman mind in these matters. Report this Post to the Staff
Doucet Pillar of the Community United States 1315 Posts	Posted 12/14/2011 9:14 pm The best is yet to come! Report this Post to the Staff
dougsmit Pillar of the Community United States 1549 Posts	Posted 12/14/2011 9:42 pm We have almost nothing relating to mint operation but that does not surprise me. Records of that sort would do no good and potentially compromise the security features that they may represent. Of course we don't know that privy marks, field letter codes or whatever were intended as security. They may have had superstitious meanings or some other meaning ('Tuesday') but we will never know. Report this Post to the Staff
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