A Few Of My Ancients To Share

Commodus: this one can be dated quite precisely, thanks to the recursions of office stated on the reverse: TRP VI IMP IIII COS III PP dates it to the early half of 181 AD. Reverse Roma Seated, Sear # 5707.

Herennia Etruscilla: coinage only began in her name in 250, and her husband (Trajan Decius) only reigned until 251, though it's speculated that coinage continued to be made in her name after her husband;s death. I can't see enough of the reverse to be certain of the type, but I think it's PVDICITIA AVG (Modesty of the Empress). This seems to have been a very common motif for coins in the name of this woman; there are 16 examples on Wildwinds. Frankly, I think anyone that feels the need to stamp "I'm modest" on coinage distributed throughout the Empire isn't really being all that modest, but this logic seems to have escaped Mrs. Decius.

The double-struck bronze: the reverse type is SECVRITAS REIPVBLICAE with Victory advancing left; this type was most commonly employed by Valens, Valentinian and Gratian, all dating from 360-380 AD.

It happened much more often than it does on "modern" machine-struck coinage, due to the way that coins were made back then. A mint worker placed a blank coin on top of the lower die (this was almost always the obverse), placed the upper die (the reverse) on top of it, and then he (or his assistant) smashed the whole assembly with a hammer. There's lots of scope for misalignments, major and minor, to happen when each coin has to be lined up by hand.

If a coin was badly off-centre the first time it was struck and it happened to catch their attention, the mint workers might "have another go at it", rather than toss it back into the scrap bin for remelting. They'd already wasted enough time on that coin and probably wouldn't give it a second glance. The result would be a coin like yours.

Because of the high frequency of occurrence, "mint errors" in ancients are often seen in a different light to errors on modern coins. For ancients, it's the well-centred, evenly struck, defect-free coins that are scarce, and carry a premium. Only the truly spectacular errors (and yours is pretty spectacular) are worth as much or more than a well-made example.

Great pictures indeed !