You are no doubt tired of hearing me preach against attributing coins to catalog numbers without checking the catalog itself. Charts and sales listings might help you find a number but it will not always make it clear what the catalog author was trying to say when he separated or combined the nearly matching coins based on minor details. Most common here is the distinctions between draped, cuirassed and draped & cuirassed busts which sometimes get different RIC numbers and sometimes don't.
One of my new coins from last weekend's show was a Helena from Antioch mint. The coin dates to about the time of the deaths of Crispus and Fausta (another great story you should know if you don't now). In the introduction to the Antioch section of RIC volume VII (p.672f) the question is addressed as to the division of the officinae among the various rulers and how this changed when two people were deleted. That leads to the questions as to whether you can tell, for example, a coin of Helena struck early (while they lived) or later (after they died). Matching up the frequency of the reassigned officinae coins (therefore the late ones) with the constantly changing diadem style, they were able to put some order to the styles assigning the one I show here with ladder diadem to the later period. I find the discussions of such things interesting and a good reason for owning the RIC volumes themselves rather than relying on derivations from online lists. That makes me the kind of weird person who can find new and interesting things about the hobby for a lifetime. If you own RIC, be sure to read it: notes, chapter heads and all. Of course it is quite possible that half of this information will be updated whenever someone writes another scholarly book on the subject so you need to read critically and don't take it all too seriously. RIC authors complained (bottom of page 672) that their study of the matter was hampered by only having 58 coins of the series to worth with. I feel their pain. I only have this one.
Who has an example of Antioch mint Helena with the other diadem styles (plain pearls, banded and several intermediates I have not seen, I suspect)?
Posted 10/13/2012 2:29 pm
