Constantinopolis City Commemorative - Alexandria

Hi Valian,

Looks real to me. I think the mint mark is more likely SMALB.

Regards,

-Kurt

EDIT: There were four workshops at Alexandria that minted this commemorative, however, the third workshop (Greek gamma) wouldn't look like a normal capital "R". Also, I have read other discussions on the topic of "morphing" whereas the metal that physically makes up the letters on ancient coins over time seemingly changes enough to make letters appear remarkably different then when initially struck, which may account for the "S" not quite looking normal.

The letters have suffered a little corrosion over time but I agree, it's definitely Alexandria and SMALB.

I know that the 3rd gamma and 4th delta officinas are listed for this mint but I have never seen one nor seen a photograph of either one.
If anyone knows the location of a photo of either one on the net let me know.

ValiantKnight your Constantinopolis is quite attractive with original patina.

Thanks Kurt,

It's always nice to know what your looking for when your looking for something.

I think it's hard to tell between the delta and A officinas, they look quite similar, but it maybe with a little study one could spot the difference between the two in the style of Nike or Constantinopolis on the obv.

regards

Thanks for putting my worry to rest guys! And for helping me with the MM. BTW I did some searching and found one very similar to mine. It even has the corroded letters: http://www.forumancientcoins.com/ga...m=1902&pos=1

Also, does the patina on my coin have a name, like with Syrian Red and desert?

Helvetia's excel sheet of Constantinopolis types http://www.catbikes.ch/coinstuff/coins-ric.htm uses the terms follis and small follis, but there is no real definition that I can find. I think that 15-16mm might be small and 17-18 a follis.

Doug Smith talks about this some on his website http://dougsmith.ancients.info/voc5.html and refers to follis as being more accurately used for Byzantine coins, and that Late Roman coin such as these Constantinopolis types are better refered to as:
AE1 = over 25mm
AE2 = 21 - 25mm
AE3 = 17 - 21mm
AE4 = under 17mm

I have a number of this type and most are 17-18mm but there are some that are 15.5-16mm and a couple at 19.5mm. Sometimes they are even smaller than 15mm and were struck, in my opinion, on a too small flan because parts or all of the legends and mint marks are missing from the edges. Maybe this is what they mean by 'small module' I'm not sure.

Regards