Strange Mint Mark | Rqvarta, Rome Mint

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Author	Replies: 6 / Views: 1,790
ancientcoinguy Pillar of the Community United States 842 Posts	Posted 01/26/2011 1:13 pm I have a coin of emperor Valens with a Victory on the back advancing left. I have several like it, but I have never seen a mint mark like the one on it before. It appears to read A(possible B?)QVARS(or gamma?). The Q seems to indicate Aquileia, but I can find no matches that correspond to the rest of it. Any chance on figuring out when/where it was made and the RIC number to go with it? Help! Moved to Ancients forum - Sap Edited by ancientcoinguy 01/26/2011 1:31 pm Report this Post to the Staff

bobbyhelmet Pillar of the Community United Kingdom 2838 Posts	Posted 01/26/2011 2:19 pm Is the legend SECVRITAS REIPVBLICAE? If it is there were lots of symbols used in the mintmarks of these, as well as the recognised Roman and Greek characters. Leaves, braches, stars and even some unknown markings can be mistaken for the more traditional characters and can often lead you down the wrong path. Do you have any pictures or are you 100% sure of what you can read it as? Report this Post to the Staff
ancientcoinguy Pillar of the Community United States 842 Posts	Posted 01/26/2011 2:50 pm I do not have a camera that can take pictures of objects so small, but I am positive the middle four letters are QVAR. The letter/symbol on either side of those characters are difficult to make out. After more time under the scope, the first is definitely a B with the last letter being either a T, I or a gamma....I may be crazy, but there appears to be an additional letter after that. An A or a Î". Definitely has a triangular form to it. You are correct- the legend on the obverse reads SECVRITAS REIPVBLICAE. A mintmark 7 characters long seems a bit far fetched though. Does RIC list all types of this kind? Perhaps I could rummage through the ones that look similar if they are online. Report this Post to the Staff
bobbyhelmet Pillar of the Community United Kingdom 2838 Posts	Posted 01/26/2011 7:19 pm I've found a reference to a Rome mintmark that could well be it: 'R.QVARTA' - The 'R.' could easily be mistaken for a 'B' depending on how it was stamped. RIC IX Rome 17b/24b, type xii (b) - rated scarce I also found the following two references to 'RQVARTA': http://esty.ancients.info/ricix/type6Vni.html http://www.anythinganywhere.com/com...m-4cval&.htm Couldn't find the above (without '.' listed in RIC though. I found a couple of similar mintmarks but they were from Valentinian and Gratian. Any good? PS welcome to the forum. Report this Post to the Staff
bobbyhelmet Pillar of the Community United Kingdom 2838 Posts	Posted 01/26/2011 7:29 pm Forgot to add - no, RIC dont list all the combinations of these mintmarks and I doubt all of them have even been discovered yet! Report this Post to the Staff
ancientcoinguy Pillar of the Community United States 842 Posts	Posted 01/26/2011 10:28 pm Wow thank you so much! You have been a great help. I will be sure to post on here again whenever I find another difficult one to deal with. Report this Post to the Staff
bobbyhelmet Pillar of the Community United Kingdom 2838 Posts	Posted 01/26/2011 11:20 pm No probs, glad to help - I had one with a damaged 'leaf' once that took an age to ID as I thought it was a damaged 'O' and had me completely puzzled. Sometimes coins just need a fresh set of eyes to ID them. Occasionally at Rome the officina number is spelt out: PRIMA, SECVNDA, TERTIA, QVARTA, each preceded by a 'R / R.' for Rome. Report this Post to the Staff
	Replies: 6 / Views: 1,790

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