Strange King Tatius - Coin Community Forum

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Author	Replies: 8 / Views: 1,335
llombar New Member United States 3 Posts	Posted 07/01/2011 4:24 pm * Moved by Staff to a more appropriate forum. * Hello All! My name is Lorraine and I live in Atlanta Georgia. The desire to hold history in my hands returned as an adult and I now collect Constantine the Great coins with campgate on reverse. The goal is to have them from as many provincial mintmark cities from around the empire. Right now I've been asked to solve a mystery. Hope ya'll can help. A friend of mine was given a coin by his grandfather. His grandfather found it in 1905 while he was helping restore the temples at Selinus (Selinunte) in Sicily. Selinus was founded by the Greeks in 500 BC and destroyed by earthquakes at the end of the of the First Century BC. We've Identified the Obverse as the bearded head of King Tatius dating it around 89BC. That's the simple part. On the reverse however the King appears agin! We're thinking, was this a test run? Ancient goof? We'd love to hear your ideas. Thanks so much! Report this Post to the Staff

drdave Pillar of the Community United States 721 Posts	Posted 07/01/2011 4:35 pm I'm no expert, but could it possibly be a button or something else besides a coin? Report this Post to the Staff
jbuck Moderator United States 188640 Posts	Posted 07/01/2011 4:54 pm to the Community! I moved your topic to the proper forum. It should get more attention from the members that know this stuff a lot better than I do. Coin Collector Since 1978 Avatar Old Avatar 7070 Eisenhower Australia Canada World CCF Members on eBay CCF eBay Search Engine Report this Post to the Staff
llombar New Member United States 3 Posts	Posted 07/01/2011 5:30 pm Thanks for helping! Report this Post to the Staff
tokenmast Pillar of the Community United States 648 Posts	Posted 07/01/2011 5:43 pm Report this Post to the Staff
Sap Moderator Australia 16830 Posts	Posted 07/01/2011 11:24 pm One thing that's not clear to me is, is the mirror-image of the king on the other side raised up in relief, or sunk down into the coin? It looks like it from the picture, but I just want to confirm. The reason I ask is, a coin with the reverse that's a mirror-image incuse version of exactly the same design that's on the obverse, is a mint error known as a "brockage". It occurs when a coin sticks to one of the dies and a second coin is then struck; the first coin struck becomes a de-facto die for the second coin, only the image is now reversed. Brockages are known on ancient coins. This thread shows what happened in ancient times when a brockage occurred; it's an actual ancient coin die, with a coin stil stuck in it. When this die was used as-is to strike a coin, a brockage would have resulted. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis Report this Post to the Staff
llombar New Member United States 3 Posts	Posted 07/02/2011 3:27 pm Indeed, on the reverse, the King is sunk down in the coin. And I loved the link showing an ancient production die with evidence of brockage. Thanks so much for for helping explain our mystery. Report this Post to the Staff
llombar New Member United States 3 Posts	Posted 07/06/2011 8:25 pm Our interest has brought up several more questions. First, would this coin still be used as currency despite the mint error? And how does this type of error (brockage) effect the value of a coin? Report this Post to the Staff
Sap Moderator Australia 16830 Posts	Posted 07/06/2011 9:09 pm The coin shows evidence of circulation, so yes, it probably would have circulated with no problems; since it was still usable as a coin, the mint worker probably wouldn't have thrown it back into the melting pot if he'd spotted it. I doubt many people back then would have noticed. As for value, "mint errors" as a general rule aren't as interesting on ancient coins as modern ones, because everything was hand-made back then. Coins with all sorts of errors on them are common, it's the perfect, error-free specimens that are unusual and command a premium. However, brockages are unusual on ancients - they're the sort of mint error a human-powered coin striker is more likely to detect and avoid than a modern machine. So yes, brockages are an exception and should enhance the value of this piece. By how much I'm not certain. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis Report this Post to the Staff
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