TR P XVI sestertius Antoninus Pius variations

[Diederik]

I bought the attached coin as a cleaning project as not too much had been damaged by the crude way of cleaning.
Cataloguing the coin, I found out that there are variants in the way the information of the reverse is presented.
BMC 1925 gives: SA-LVS - AVG COS IIII, S - C
RIC 906 is not clear as they give: SALVS AVG.COS.IIII S.C.
Strack gives two variants one like BMC and the other with COS IIII in the exergue (1084-1085).
My specimen has SC in the exergue and I was thrilled that it would be a very special coin, when I found out that in AcSearch a similar coin is depicted sold here from Forum. I have however not been able to find more examples, so I think the variant with SC in ex is rather scarce.
In a few weeks' or months' time I shall present the cleaned coin.

Frans

[Diederik]

Well. I cleaned it. What a job!
I could have been more thorough, but decided not to, as I didn't want to ruin the coin. I think it is acceptable as it is.
The issue of the place of the SC kept be busy, but I have not been able to find a good example with ASC in the exergue. What I did find, was a die match to the obverse! TR P XV
Though there is place on my coin to add a 'I' , Think it is XV after all.
Hope you appreciate my work.

Frans

[timka]

Frans, very impressive result! congrats!  ... if it is not a secret, did you clean manually, or with ultra sound?

[Diederik]

Timka,
Thanks for the compliment.
Just with a small surgical knife and 20 times magnification. There's a whole grubby world to be seen with rocks and pebbles and sometimes you wonder what you are doing, but with the magnification you can work really precise, but slow.

F

[timka]

Frans, thank you for letting know..one day I will give a try to this method too:)