Gallienus and Claudius II imperial coinage in the East

[Harry G]

4 hours ago, seth77 said:

Tell you what it looks like to me:

- the last two coins 'Smyrna phase 2' Temp 847 and the 1st issue Cyzicus are both Cyzicus issues

- the type 847 in general is Smyrna, but on the coin you posted (FAC coin) the obverse is Cyzicus to my eyes, early SPQR series early 269 rather than Smyrna

- the reverse die on the other hand is possibly Smyrna

- which would make perfect sense if the operation moved from Smyrna to Cyzicus, such 'continuation' of older dies is to be expected

- I don't think the two are obverse die-matches, if you check out the imaginary line from the tip of Claudius nose to the legend on the obverse on the SPQR coin the line would end mid S of CLAVDIVS while on the no mark coin just after the S, but they are certainly very close

- a die sharing between SPQR and no mark would probably suggest what you mentioned above, the SPQR operation moved to Cyzicus while the no marking operation was undergoing there, so the 1st emission of Cyzicus could in theory be contemporary with the last SPQR coins struck at Smyrna, the physical moving of the operation, cutters paraphernalia, including used dies, and the first coins struck with SPQR at Cyzicus probably late winter-early spring 269

All in all that FAC coin is really interesting.

Interesting coins! I think I actually own a double die match to that VENVS AVG example, and (hopefully) have some pictures of it that are better than RIC:

 

 

 

And here's my FORTVNA AVG (no mintmark) example, with a more Smyrna-y looking bust.

 

As for the last 2 coins, I would tentatively say they share an obverse die - the crown spikes seem to point to the same parts of each letter, and the D and I of CLAVDIVS are pretty close together on both coins.