Diocletian

Very good details. I like.

I think I have a Diocletian in my unattributed pile I should (when I go home) take a couple out and have the Roman guys have at it....but that is a wicked nice coin with a lot of legend, and a great obverse! I take it the XXI is the 21st year of the oath of office?

XXI means one part silver was mixed with 20 parts copper to make this coin. It is commonly found on antoniniani from Aurelian through Diocletian. I have a page on it:
http://www.forumancientcoins.com/do...ac73xxi.html

Diocletian pre-reform antoniniani come in several reverses from several mints but most show two figures shaking hands. These can be the emperor with either Jupiter or Hercules or the two gods together. Some are separated by style into the mints but in many cases a mint is suspected because of the way the workshop letter (here B) was placed. This coin is very standard Antioch style using Greek numerals 1-9 (A-epsilon delta) for the shop. Very few Diocletian coins have a city abbreviation in the pre-reform period but most do after the antoninianus system was abandoned in favor of the larger follis at his currency reform.

I like Diocletian and will show one of my favorite antoniniani with Jupiter and Hercules. It shows trace silvering. All of these were originally silvered but not all retain the wash.

focusxl, well centered coin, has good detail,very nice...