Coin Information: Tantalus S/N 34023
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| Coin type: | Roman Provincial |
| Entered by: | scottatlaw |
| Added on: | Jan 12, 2009 |
| Ruler: | Valerian I (AUGUSTUS) |
| Region, City: | Moesia Superior, Viminacium |
| Coin: | F+ AE Sestertius IMPVALERIANVSPAVG - Laurelate, paludamentum draped over cuirass bust right (viewed from rear). PMSC-OLVIM - Moesia standing (bare arms extended) between advancing bull & lion. |
| Exergue: | ANXVI |
| Mint: | (Year 16) |
| Wt./Size/Axis: | 9.50g / 27.25mm / - |
| Rarity: | R.5+ |
| References: |
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| Acquisition/Sale: | Plamen Arsoff d/b/a ancient_treasures Ebay.com 1-2-2009 |
| Notes: | Jan 26, 09 - Image courtesy of ebay seller "ancient_treasures " aka Plamen Arsoff.
This coin is an unlisted variant of Boric-Breskovic #s 1677-1691. This coin is a near match for coins number 619 and 620 in SNG Hungary, however, the attribution accompanying these coins is incorrect. Unlisted in SNG Germany and Moushmov. Valerian's Viminacium coins are tough to find, and even tougher to find in higher grades. This coin may not look like much but it is actualy a relatively high grade specimen struck from relatively crisp re-cut dies. There are several details we can focus on to argue this coin is struck from a re-cut. The most compelling in my opinion is the presence of gouges on many of the letters. The clearest examples are the "L" at 11:00 on the obverse and the "AN XVI" in the exergue. The thorny projections from those letters are gouges in the die that were put there when someone tried to touch up a highly worn die. Other suspect details that strengthen my opinion include: the high relief of the letters, laurel crown, and paludamentum; the strange style used in the obverse portrait; and the uneveness of the wear on the obverse portrait and reverse design (note how high the relief is on the bull and lion, but how low the relief is on Moesia herself). As I've stated on other coins from this time frame (years 14 - 16) there are three tiers of coins for this time perior: Master quality, Mid Range quality, and re-cut dies. The master coins are of the highest quality artistic merit. They are obscenely rare, but they do indeed exist. You almost never see them up for sale and when they do appear, the sky is the limit for the price they can demand. The Mid Range coins are still relatively rare, but you can find them popping up on ebay a few times a year and they'll likely run you less then $100. These mid grade coins still have a professional quality look about them although they are a bit rougher in style then the master works. The final group, re-cuts, are what this coin belongs to. The vast majority of Valerian and Gallienus coins come from this category. They are notable for the crude appearance of thier busts and odd legend blunders. Often they are too badly damaged (thourgh wear on the coin and/or die) to be fully attributable. You can check out the scan from Boric-Brescovic's plates to get a better idea what the three levels of quality look like: http://www.tantaluscoins.com/coins/26461.php The beauty of this coin is that becuase it was struck with a relatively "fresh" re-cut die the gouges from the re-cutting are still visible. We know from other specimens that circulation and die wear can make these gouges difficult to pick out. This coin's grade more or less closes the debate IMHO that someone was recutting Valerian and Gallienus' coins. So why and when did the re-cutting take place? My guess is that these coins were actualy struck by governement officials sometime after the mint was shut down (making these coins rather unofficial issues at best). First off, the re-cutting is frankly amateurish in nature. Whoever produced these coins clearly wasn't up to snuff compared to the Master and Mid Range quality coins which were produced officialy. If the people who had made those much nicer looking coins been around, it stands to reason that the re-cuts would have looked much nicer. To complicate matters, we might also suppose that whoever made these coins was a part of the government. The coins are clearly struck from re-cut official dies, meaning that whoever did this had access to the original dies (ie, likely government officials). The final wrinkle is that we can assume there was no authority to do this from Rome because Viminacium still had an imperial mint functioning for quite some time after the provincial mint shut down. They could have easily (and professionaly) re-cut the dies had the authority in Rome given the OK. My guess is that these coins were struck by local officials to infuse cash into the local economy (to obtain emergency supplies or to keep things going until the new Imperial currency took hold). Either way, these coins functioned as a crisis currency that was probably accepted by the locals because times were tough (why else would you accept such a rough looking coin?). |
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