I have been collecting Probus coins for over 20 years and one of my sub-collections is his coinage from Alexandria. I have not added a new coin to this sub-collection for a few years as I seem to be chasing coins that only come onto the market quite rarely and with some, when they do come on the market the feeding frenzy around them makes them to prohibitively expensive for me to get it when it is offered.
All that being said I have just added a coin to this sub-collection.
Probus, Billon tetradrachm
Obv:- A K M AVP PROBOC CEB, Laureate, cuirassed bust right
Rev:- None, Eagle standing right, head left wreath in beak
Minted in Alexandria Egypt. (L | D) Year 4. A.D. 278-279
Reference(s) - Milne -. Emmett 3983(4) - Curtis -. BMC -. Köln -; Dattari -. All unlisted for this regnal year. This reverse type is listed in the refences for years 1, 2 and 5)
6.73 gms, 19.37 mm. 0 degrees
This is one of the five (5) eagle reverse types known for Probus.
The type is not scarce but is apparently not published for this regnal year.
Not eanting to take the appearance of an unpublished regnal year at face value I have been discussing this coin with someone (I am not sure that I am free to name them here and thus I will not) and the following challenges to this coin have been gone through.
Year 1 coins are in general much scarcer than most later coins due to the short duration of the regnal year. It not not unknown for later coins to be tooled to make them appear to come from year 1. Cound this be the converse where a year 1 coin has had the regnal year modified to create an unpublished regnal year.
To challenge this I provided a more detailed image of the year. This allows inspection of the regnal year in more detail. The serifs are clearly visible on the corners of the Delta and there are flowlines in the fields which give the best indication that these areas have not been modified.
The next challenge is more difficult to challenge. The bust is quite large compared to others in this issue and is more consistent with earlier years. The best way to progress this is to perform a die analysis and find an obverse die match to as many examples as possible to see what regnal years the obverse die turns up for. This would then allow some further analysis to occur to answer some questions. During what regnal years were this obverse die use? Are there other examples of this die in Year 4? If the die is used across regnal years then are there other examples of an obverse die being used across regnal years for this period?
Thus far I have not made any progress as I have not been able to find any obverse die matches. I will continue this activity.
As such there is no reason to doubt that it ia what it appears to be, which is an unpublished regnal year for the type.
Just for comparison here are my examples of Years 1, 2 and 5.
Year 1 is very much like an Aurelian portrait
Year 2 - (needs a new photo)
Year 5 (also needs a new photo)
The other eagle reverse types are:-
Emmett 3981 - Eagle standing right, palm on wing, wreath in beak
Emmett 3982 - Eagle standing right, head right, wings spread, wreath in beak
Emmett 3984 - Eagle standing left, head turned right, wreath in beak
Emmett 3985 - Eagle standing facing left, head right, with wreath in beak
Regards,
Martin
Posted 02/03/2024 7:34 pm
