Nice
work with the photos!
I have
met small
flan,
AE4 FTR pieces of this
type, ca. the size of the
Spes Rei Publice coins, sometimes even a
bit smaller, but is most cases the size of the dies were adjusted to the small flans. I was wondering, whether the
type was continued after the
weight reduction in some mints for a very short time. But your coin is too small for these, that is why I wrote barbarous.
Under the reign of
Valentinian I I have
met small
flan coins in several cases, instead of the
AE3 size
AE4 coins were struck with the regular
AE3 dies, mostly dies of the city of
Rome. I have
met these coins mostly in
hoards, where a "smaller
denomination" could
had been separated - there was a certain difference in the
weight of the
AE4 and
AE3 coins. The closure of all
hoards (as far as it could be determined) was before the introduction of a real
AE4 denomination, but sometimes these small coins made up 10-20% of the
hoards.
I am not sure wether they are unofficial small change, or the
mint maunfactured so underweight flans (1-1.3 g). The coins were not clipped.