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 Replies: 10 / Views: 1,423 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3444 Posts |
One of the positively 'interesting' coins in my lot of 20 The very rare CINIO POPULI ROMANI variety ! I actually seem to remember seeing one of these before a long time ago ..... for the life of me I can't remember where ! 7.53 grams 23-6mm   Stove pipe head and neck with cuirassed bust. Slightly ill proportioned "CINIVS" on reverse. Black patina (bronze not billon ?) ....... British mintage ? A quadrans for your thoughts |
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
2838 Posts |
Small and light and with a questionable style, It is official though.
It is indeed from London, one of the 'small head on long neck' coins from around 300AD. The London coins seemed to retain the style of Carausius and Alectus for a number of years after their deaths.
Maximian or Diocletian, cant tell which, you might get lucky if you can spot a 'give away' letter with the coin in hand.
As far as RIC is concerned its one of the following: RIC VI London 6a, 6b, 9 or 11.
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
4208 Posts |
Looks a lot like something Carausius wouldve issued for the Emperors in Rome, if not himself.. Perhaps a Carausius mint worker hired by the Imperial mints.
By elimination, its certainly not Carausius and its Certainly GENIO POPVLI ROMANI. Id guess Maximian. Pity the head isn't visible. By the style id say its a Western mint. If you can read the legend more, you might try delving into Helvetica's spreadsheets.
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Moderator
 United States
23731 Posts |
IMO it looks more like Maximian.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
3444 Posts |
Many thanks for the input. I also think it tends more toward Maximian but with these folli without a legend it could be almost anyone (even cousin Leo ?). I took more pics with the light angled to get some detail but the legend is difficult to say the least. Only the AVG at the very end is certain.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
549 Posts |
That coin is very heavily tooled. You can't trust that any details are ancient.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3444 Posts |
If it were tooled the legend would be legible no ? The coin is worse for wear and heavily patinated.
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
2100 Posts |
Either tooled or not official. This does not look like the official output of any mint that I recognise.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3444 Posts |
I am not in anyway expert on any of these 'unusual' folli. But I am tempted to trust 'Bobby'.
He has made these issues his area of expertise.
Until I hear otherwise from someone of similar standing I will accept his attribution as being 'authoritative'.
But I do listen to all opinions and they are most welcome !
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
2838 Posts |
Thought I would post a clearer example of a similar coin to indicate why I came to the conclusion I did. The following coin was originally posted by Gil-galad in 2012 and shows some of the odd stylistic peculiarities of this series of coin. It is RIC VI London 6A.  Firstly the very strong and broad Laureate that when worn can look a lot like it should have been a radiate. The sweeping ribbon ties and 'lack' of shoulders are also common on these coins. The busts on these two coins although not a great match do have similarities and looking at Gils it can be seen how a beard when worn (like on FRs) can start to look like a large chin and make the subject look a lot more like Carausius. As far as the obverse goes I see nothing to hint at it being anything other than official, worn, but official. The reverse does look odd but we've unfortunately lost most of its detail, maybe if more remained it would be clearer. All I would say in its defence is look at just the 'GENIO' section of legend on Gils coin and cover up the rest of the coin. It too then looks quite odd. I only have one unofficial GENIO, it has transposed letters and all kinds of 'give-aways', I'm sure Warren has a collection on line which I will try to find now and link to. I'm open to other opinions if some pointers can be given. |
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
2838 Posts |
Not only does Warren have a page it even has an unofficial version of a 6a on it!  http://esty.ancients.info/imit/imittetrarchy.htmlExcellent style obverse but a very poor quality reverse, very interesting indeed but doesn't change my opinion of FRs coin. 'Tooling' is perhaps a term too often associated with valuable coins, maybe if we called it 'over optimistic scraping' on lesser coins it would be easier to understand. |
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Replies: 10 / Views: 1,423 |
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Posted 02/13/2014 5:11 pm
