Later Roman Camp-Gates : Would Love to See 'Em

[O-Towner]

On 7/26/2022 at 4:23 PM, wittwolff said:

Here some of my favorite campgate coins:

Emperor Licinius - VIRTVS AVGG - Rome mint

 

 

I was just looking at your camp-gates and I'm almost positive that this Licinius gate is the very rare closed-door variety.  You can kind of see the dots where the door is and the obverse (helmeted bust) and the reverse (VIRTV - S AVGG with P - R to either side and RS in exergue) design is definitely that coin.

[Victor_Clark]

 

 

Constantine I
A.D. 318- 319
19mm 3.1g
CON-STANTI-NVS AVG; cuirassed and helmeted bust left, spear pointing forward and shield on left arm.
VIRTVS AVGG; camp gate with closed doors and three turrets, across fields P-R
In ex. RP
RIC VII Rome 178

 

 

[seth77]

Just how late should they be?

Lead 15x16mm 2.77g tessera mercantile(?) or gate token, ca. 13th century.
Anepigraphic; Campgate
B O; bar or omega above, 2 pellets below.

 

These small lead tokens could have been either used as money for small day to day purchases inside a city or a trading post or as tickets for travelers and traders to enter the city. The dating is tentative, based on the shape of the letters and the diameter and weight.

Italians brought the commercial use of these small lead tokens with them to the crusader domains in the Levant, where they proved to be very useful to the local economy, being used not only in the big urban metropoli but in the small villeneuves and castle faubourgs. But this specific specimen has an Italian origin so it was most likely used somewhere in Italy.

Further research is needed to identify and date this object. Is BO a Bohemond? Is this tessera actually a Tripolitan or Antiochene issue?

I have written an article for CoinTalk, where I point to a possible identification of this tessera as being used in Tripoli (or Antioch?) during the reign of Bohemond "le Borgne" or Bohemond V of Antioch. It can be read here.

From an old Italian collection, from Rome. Sold as being of Byzantine provenance but unlikely.

[wittwolff]

4 hours ago, O-Towner said:

I was just looking at your camp-gates and I'm almost positive that this Licinius gate is the very rare closed-door variety.  You can kind of see the dots where the door is and the obverse (helmeted bust) and the reverse (VIRTV - S AVGG with P - R to either side and RS in exergue) design is definitely that coin.

Yes I already heard that the coin is quite rare but luckily for me this didn't raise the price too much 🙂 . Rare variants of late roman coins are possibly not that sought after I guess.