Tejas

I think it is still meant to be hair. Indeed, I think nobody in Antioch wore a turban, let a lone the local prince. The principality of Antioch had about 20’000 inhabitants in the 12th century consisting mostly of Armenians and Greeks and a few Moslems living outside the city.

I don’t understand the category “Goth”, especially with imperors like Caligula and Elagabalus being attributed to this group. The Goths provided some of the most capable rulers of the entire Roman Empire, especially if we include men like the Thuringian/Scirian Odovaker, or the Vandal Stilicho not to mention Theoderic the Great.

This is a Löser for 5 Talers. I think these coins belong to the most beautiful coins ever minted.

There is currently a collection of Löser for sale. One shows a Wild Man. It is a Löser for 4 Taler, weighing 115 g.

Yes, that is actually pretty cool to have a coat of arms that reflects your hobby. Are you entitled to bear that coat of arms?

Amazing, that they would accept such an odd flan for a gold coin.

That is a very beautiful coin and an interesting family connection. The blason (heraldic description) of Abraham Brunschwig's coat of arms translates as "In red six besants of silver, (in order) three - two and one". The heraldic term besant or bezant describes a silver or gold disc, indicating money. The term besant/bezant was used by the Crusaders to refer to Byzantine gold coins, i.e. besant is a modified form of Byzantine. The name was later applied to dirhams. The coat of arms may have been designed to reflect the fact that Abraham Brunschwig had effectively bought the arms or the reference to money could have been intended to indicate his substantial wealth.

The university of Heidelberg is running a project where they collect grafitti on Roman coins: Materiale Textkulturen - Sonderforschungsbereich 933 an der Universität Heidelberg | Teilprojekte (materiale-textkulturen.de) I think most of the coins in that collection show what I would call accidential scratches, some may be test cuts and very few may be actual grafitti.

That is an interesting and plausible theory in my view. There is some research to be done on this subject. It is also possible that money changers/bankers marked these coins as having passed certain quality tests. Then again, the engraving on my semissis is tiny and would have required some effort to make.

Unfortunately, no. The expert runologist I contacted said that he thinks that these are pseudo-Runes, i..e somebody imitating Runes who could not realy write Runes. Apparent three signs can be interpreted as Runes on the coin. Runes (German "raunen" meaning whispering in a secretive way) had also magic properties for the Germanic peoples. It could also be that the signs themselves where associtated with a meaning that is lost on us.

Interesting, I missed that discussion about runes. Some of these markings could just be scratches. However, the sign on my coin looks very deliberate and controlled. Here is a Germanic (Gothic) imitation, which may show runes or pseudo-runes. I showed this to a rune expert, who believed that these are pseudo-runes, i.e. writing trying to copy runes. Of course they are not engraved, but minted as part of the design: Imitation of Probus Antoninian or aureus (?) Obv.: Bust left with spear and shield, pseudo Germanic runes Rev: Quadriga Found: Tshernovitskaya oblast, Kelmenetski raion Weight: 4.54 gr Small hole at 23 o'clock

Hm, yes possibly its not a Staurogram, but a personal monogram. I never thought about it. However, there is a form of the Staurogram with a split stem. This has been used on some later solidi.

Great coins. I lived in London for 12 years, so Londinium is kind of close to my heart 🙂 I have the Genio type only for Licinius I. Below are a few of my Constantinian coins of Londinium.

Beautiful coins! I like the first one in particular. I suppose that semisses, i.e. a half-denomination would be natural for us today, but in a monetary system that was dominated by solidi and tremisses, i.e. full denomination and third denominations, the semissis sat awkwardly in between. Just a guess.

I got this semissis below, mainly because it was surprisingly inexpensive. Semisses are a scarce denomination that is rarely seen on this forum. So I thought I share it here: Anastasius I. 491-518. AV Semissis (18mm, 2.15 g, 6h). Constantinople mint. Struck 492-507. Diademed, draped, and cuirassed bust right / Victory seated right on arms, inscribing shield set on knee; star to left, reversed staurogram to right; CONOB. DOC 8; MIBE 9; SB 6. While the coin is in EF, note that somebody engraved a small staurogram next to the staurogram on the reverse. Interestingly, the staurogram on the coin is inverted, i.e. the Rho is pointed in the wrong direction. The engraved staurogram is correctly orientated. Please show us your semissis or any other rarely seen denomination, or coins that are engraved with religious symbols.

True, but the image combined with the legend makes the reverse type. The ORIGINI AVG reverse of Probus is unique to this emperor. I think it is not just a unique, but also a mysterious reverse. Is it refering to the origins of the Augustus, i.e. of Probus or is it refering to the origins of Rome with the Romulus, Remus and Lupa image? Perhaps the coin indicates that Probus was from Siscia, i.e. celebrating that a native of their city had become emperor? Here is another unique reverse type from the Gothic kingdom. Athalaric (or better is mother) introduced a number of new reverse types inculding the type below, which shows a tree with two eagles. The tree may stand for the Ficus Ruminalis and the eagles my indicate Romulus and Remus. The interpretation is, however, uncertain. Athalaric (526-534) AE 20 Nummi (half follis) Mint: Rome The 20-Nummi coins of with ficus ruminalis are very rare and this is one of the best of the type:

The frabric of the surfaces of my two coins above is very different. The Quintillus Ant. has a rough surface and under magnification tiny silver pellets are visible. The small cracks at the rim show that the silver coating is very thick. I'm not an expert at all, but I imagine some kind of chemical process involving acids and heat may have be involved. From the picture I get the impression that the Arcadius' has similar surfaces. The Constans nummus is completely different. Its colour and overall touch and feel is that of a contemporary siliqua. I wish I had access to a spectrometer to optain the exact composition of the coin.

Probus' coins are wellknown for his many innovative obverse types, while his reverse types are mostly standard. This one from my collection, however, was minted only for Probus:

Then there is this coin. A small comon nummus of Constans. If I didn't know better, I would say the coin was struck in silver. Again, no idea what this is.

That is very interesting. Below is Quintillus Antoninian from my collection. I have shown the coin before, pretty much with the same question. The coin is covered in a thick coating of silver (or silvery substance). Only the rim shows some spots of the underlying copper/bronze. I have no idea if the silver coating is the result of some artifical or natural processes.

Wow, there are some fantastic reverse types in your collection, Warren, some of which l have never seen before. I'll add them to my want list. PS I think on your Philip I the reading of the reverse legend is wrong SPES FELICITATIS OBVIS should be SPES FELICITATIS ORBIS

I think the attribution of these coins to barbarians or uncertain Germanic tribes is a red herring. Barbarians outside the borders of the Empire typically had no economic organisation that would require bronze coins. These coins are associated with urban centers. There was a constant shortage of official bronze coins, especially since Justinian tried to fit bronze coins into the metal standard by issuing large coins of some intrinsic value. This removed the seignorage and official mints were reluctant to produce these coins beyond what was necessary for circulation in the largest urban centers. Smaller towns had to produce their own coins to make up for the shortage. Also, I would give next to no weight to TimelineOriginals’ attribution of these coins. The Vandals minted municipal and royal copper coins with their own designs and had no need to imitate East Roman bronzes.

Great coins shown here! Here is one of my favorite Valerian from the mint of Viminacium:

That is an exceptionally nice coin of Tancred, which shows very clearly that he is not wearing a turban.

I put together a list of the mints and officinae, which minted for Quintillus. As you can see most officinae minted only one reverse type. Given that Quintillus's reign lasted for a maximum of half a year, the coin production is quite impressive. All types appart from those indicated in grey are quite commen. I think that it is possible that they were minted with reverse dies of Claudius II, at least in the case of the VICTORIAE GOTHICAE reverse. I thought I have seen a MARS VICT reverse once, but I'm not sure.