seth77

Is this thread like for coins not worthy of their own thread but kinda ok or such posts should be relegated to another specific thread?

Very interesting, I think I see a full monogram there rather than just the staurogram:

Gallienus was also featured on this issue and it was assigned to Antioch rather than Viminacium due to Gobl (MIR).

How old is this and what kind of text does it contain. Do you read and translate your manuscripts?

So basically the Gauls invented jazz.

The Priene with the legend around the amphora was also in my watchlist but I was after something else.

It's very worn, the legends are mostly gone, but I really liked this Domitian from Caesarea Maritima: AE24 10.43g looks coppery and feels similar to an Imperial as, which is probably what it was meant to be. The reverse very likely is a reference to the First Jewish War, 10years later.

I bet no one wants to see some Crusader tokens.

I see - IC - XC; bust of Christ nimbate, wearing tunic and cloack, holding Gospels. - TA - NK - P - H; Cross pommetee, fleuronnee at base. (turn the reverse at 180 degrees) The weight is typical for the later phase of the copper coinage at Antioch, starting with ca 1108/9. Antioch 5 in CCS.

There's a statue there that looks like she lost her head with all the art around.

Reviving this with a new possibility: 4. A military bust with the Tyche of Carrhae Mesopotamia - Carrhae AE24mm 9.25g brass (orichalcum) (multiple) assarion, minted ca. 231-2. AYT K M A C A - [ΛƐΞΑΝΔΡΟϹ ...]; laureate and cuirassed bust of Severus Alexander, left, holding spear on shoulder and decorated shield, seen from back ΜΗΤ ΚΟ ΚΑΡΡΗΝωΝ; Tyche of the Carrhae (or of Antioch?) seated on rock, left, holding corn ears; at her feet, lighted altar; below, river god swimming, left. cf. RPC 7885 Probably one of the issues related to the eastern campaign of Alexander in Mesopotamia against the Sassanians. But the martial bust is not definitive proof of a post 230 dating. This coinage, inspired by the large base metal denominations introduced by Elagabal in 218 at Antioch, has similar martial busts for Elagabal too, so dating before March 222. On this spec, the effigy shows a younger but mature Alexander, lacking facial hair. On the other hand, the rarity of this issue (2specs in RPC, of which one is wrongly attributed and a few others on acsearch) also indicates that unlike at Antioch, these Mesopotamian mints -- Carrhae, Edessa, Rhesaena -- did not mint continuously, but rather at certain particular times. Such a time would have certainly been during Severus Alexander's campaign in the East, when these cities, Carrhae in particular, were particularly important. In 230 Ardashir of the Sassanians was already at Nisibis and heading towards Cappadocia with his armies. In 232 as a result of Alexander's indecisive campaign, the Persian army had disbanded and Ardashir retreated, leaving Roman Mesopotamia to its Roman rule. With this military bust type in the conditions of irregular minting, Carrhae likely struck this coinage with a terminus post quem of 231 and ante quem of 233.

Really like the veiled spec.

@Valentinian was the master of suspense with his phrasing. With my interest in aspects of Severus Alexander coinage, especially the early and the very late, I am thinking of our colleague a lot lately. Especially when I enter a new S. Alexander arrival in my notes or do a write-up here. Glad to hear about him and I hope he'll be back in the saddle soon.

Another of the same type: This one has a similar legend ΜΑΡ ΑΥΡΗΛΙΟϹ ΑΛƐΞΑΝΔΡΟϹ ΚƐC, which I like a lot. These obverse dies are so interesting with their spelling and transliteration KE or KEC for Caesar and the almost full name of Marcus Aurelius Alexander and unlike the Rome coinage, Antioch struck these more or less regularly in the second half of 221.

I have announced this minute copper-lead alloy AE14 2.14g of Ilium minted probably for Augustus as BC was turning into AD in @DonnaML's post about the first entries of 2024: AE14mm 2.14g leaded bronze fraction, minted at Ilium ca. very late 1st century BC or early 1st century AD ΙΛΙ; bare head of Augustus(?), right owl flanked by monograms RPC I 2308, Bellinger T116 It is part of a series of very small copper-based issues that seem to mark the transition to direct Roman rule over the city, of which only the somewhat larger type (RPC I 2311) names Augustus as Sebastos (so at the very least post-27BC). The overall design and alloy is very similar to the Phrygian Laodicea coinage for Gaius Caesar of 5BC, including the reverse where two monograms flank the main iconographical device. Theoretically at least, the bare head on the obverse could be any of Augustus heirs, including Tiberius, considering the larger denominations in orichalcum are introduced at Ilium later, with Caligula. The reverse owl is the point of attraction for me, certainly a reference to Pallas-Athena Ilios-Minerva as the local cult of Pallas and the legend of the Palladium became intertwined with the Roman cult of Minerva as Ilium was started to integrate into the Empire. An intriguing possibility is that the coin is the specimen from the Edward J. Waddell Auction 1 (1982) lot 169, as noted in RPC but without an image. The specifications fit.

These local coinages make very interesting research projects. It's worth noting that your coin is not related to the issue of Barbarus, but it's rather ca. 205+ after Pautalia drops the legate signature on its large denominations.

At a rapid skim-through this legend is not used at other mints in Thracia either. And I don't think it was in use in Moesia Inferior either.

Fantastic work tracking down clues and very interesting coin. The obverse legend is also a bit odd innit. The Lanz spec reads clearly AV KAICAR ANTWNINOC but are there other dies with this titulature? Usually Caracalla post-198 is reffered to as Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (with several abbreviations) and then Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus, so what up with the strange emphasis on Caesar while Caracalla is obviously already Augustus? The legate is certainly Sicinnius Clarus, dated to +/- 202 because of the coinage minted for Plautilla. With this obverse legend, your coin is likely pre-wedding, as the coinage of Plautilla minted by Clarus has full titles, so possibly 201? The reverse die that would attribute your coin has to be a very wide and have the full ΠΑΥΤΑΛΙΑϹ in the well-defined exergue. This feature appears more in the coinage of the 2nd century - Marcus Aurelius, Commodus. I think that fully attributing this coin would require access to Bulgarian researchers.

One of my favorite mini-coins:

Something that hasnt been shown before here

I like to think that I have more than one single relevant post 😸😸

There seems to be some coinage minted in the Byzantine Morea in the late 14th to the early 15th century: a petty denomination probably intended to be paired/compete with the colonial Venetian coinage, the tornesello. J. Baker describes and puts forth some notes on these Greek 'tornesi' of Mystras or Monemvasia in 'A coinage for late Byzantine Morea under Manuel II Palaiologos (1391-1425)'. Unlike the Venetian coinage, the Byzantine issues did not move much outside the confines of three main points in Byzantine Morea during the reign of Manuel II - Mystras, Monemvasia and Sparta. As a result they are now very rare, virtually non-existent beyond the confines of the despotate. The 'Latin' part of Greece on the other hand was supplied with Venetian torneselli from ca. 1352 and well beyond the fall of Constantinopolis in 1453. I had a post in early 2023 about the colonial billon tornesello as late as 1486 here. In Attica and the Isthmus the Catalans seem to have continued minting immobilizations of the denier tournois of Guy II de la Roche and afterwards the Acciaioli probably had their own monetary operation in the Acrocorinth ca. 1390. It is also a possibility that Giacomo del Balzo and the Navarese Company had 'tornesi' minted during Giacomo's campaign to claim Morea as titular Latin Emperor in 1382-3. These coins are noted by Seltman and Malloy et al but their attribution is uncertain and they might in fact be just non-descript late imitations 'tornesi' of the likes that Badoer was involved in buying and selling as scrap metal in the 1420s. This is a very very very concentrated overview of the numismatic landscape in 1400 in Greece.

Hi @JeandAcre unfortunately I cannot add anything of value to this because anything Russian is outside my interests.

The Faustina I is very likely supposed to be an as to my mind too, with just south of 10g and 24mm. But the metal is not the usual coppery red one sees in a regular as but yellow brass, perhaps not as pale as in the Sabina sestertius, but with the pitting and the other defects that is no surprise.