Thank you
Peter I have to say, I am sure it is a
lion on the
reverse, from the long tail, legs, paws, torso and
head with some tufts around it for a mane.
I have looked into my copy of
Varbanov III for examples for Macedonian Edessa and
Thessalonica for the said Emperors, none of which have recorded examples with "
AVΓOVCTOC" in full in their
obverse legend.
(The
flan of my coin is thin, around 1 mm, most of the coins (
AEs) I have owned for
Thessalonica have been thick, around 3 mm.)
Having a look in artificial light some other letters on both the
obverse and
reverse are made out, now making them appear:
Ob: ...
CA...ΓOVC.
Reverse: ...
ΠЄCCY...O.
I wonder if this is "Pessinus", the town in
Galatia? And as you menetioned,
Peter,
Caracalla? (there are Pessinus examples of
AVΓOVCTOC for
Caracalla, such as in Wilds Winds, though those are large
AE30s)
Meepzorp was right on
Asia Minor being a possibility.
However one example does have a similar
obverse legend of
AVΓOVCTOC the similar "
V" before the "
Γ", which difers to the "
V" after "
O":
http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/ric/caracalla/_pessinus_SNGFrance_2619.txtThat one's
obverse legend is:
ANTΩNINOC AVΓOVCTOC, so on mine it must be:
ANTΩNINOC A-VΓOVCTOCI guess the
lion is the "
Cybele" theme that appears on some of Pessinus coinage?
So the
mint is: Pessinus, Emperor:
Caracalla.
Now to find a reference...