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Author Topic: For father, for son: a recut solidus die  (Read 753 times)

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Offline Heliodromus

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For father, for son: a recut solidus die
« on: September 07, 2020, 10:08:49 am »
There's a very interesting gold coin of Constantius I (below) in the British Museum which seems to have slipped under the radar in modern times.

Obv: CONSTANTIVS PF AVG
Rev: VICT CONSTANT AVG
Wt: 4.39g

Given Constantius's title of augustus, the coin should nominally be dated to 305-306, and might be expected to be of aureus weight, which it is not.

I found reference to this coin in two old Numismatic Chronicle articles discussing the Arras hoard. It is first mentioned in 1930 by Sir Arthur Evans who, noting the weight, used it to advance his theory that the solidus standard had been introduced by Constantius I, not his son Constantine. Evans references the coin to the Thomas Pembroke collection (citing a 1746 AD reference), and a later catalog of the collection dating to 1848.

The nature of the coin is revealed in a slightly later NC article from 1933 by Agnes Baldwin Brett ("Miss Baldwin" to Sir Evans), again discussing the Arras hoard, and incidentally refuting Sir Evans' solidus theory. She notes that the style of the "VICT CONSTANT AVG" coin ("the Pembroke solidus in the BM") doesn't match the nominal 305-306 date, then makes the critical connection to the VICTORIA CONSTANTINI AVG solidus of Constantine (RIC VII Ticinum 34) .... to which it is a die link !!!

Miss Baldwin's conclusion, which seems correct although surprising, is that the Constantius coin is in fact a postumous issue, issued by Constantine at same time as RIC VII Ticinum 34 (i.e. c.315 AD), at Constantine's prevailing solidus standard. The somewhat curious, and curiously spaced "VICT CONSTANT AVG" legend was apparently deliberately done to allow the same die to then be recut as "VICTORIA CONSTANTINI AVG".

I've only been able to find one specimen of RIC 34 online, NAC 49 # 470 (below), but as luck would have it this specimen does indeed appear to be a die link to the other coin. It'd be interesting to know if there are other dies also.

The Constantius coin is BM 1889,0710.12, and sadly seems to have lost some of it's provenance and any mention of this critical die link. The BM only notes the coin as having been acquired from Messrs W S Lincoln & Son, in 1889, with no mention of the much earlier, apparently famous, Pembroke collection. It was also somehow missed by the authors of RIC VI.

The articles are:

SOME NOTES ON THE ARRAS HOARD: INCEPTION OF SOLIDUS STANDARD ON BRITISH MODEL IN MEDALLIONS OF CONSTANTIUS CHLORUS
Sir Arthur Evans
Numismatic Chronicle Vol. 10, No. 39 (1930), pp. 221-274

THE AUREI AND SOLIDI OF THE ARRAS HOARD
Agnes Baldwin Brett
Numismatic Chronicle Vol. 13, No. 52 (1933), pp. 268-348

You can access both articles online via JSTOR, which now allows 99 articles per month to be read for free.

The Sir Evans article is a must read for anyone interested in the Arras hoard, or in roman coins at all for that matter. Sir Evans acquired a number of the Arras coins himself, having heard of the find immediately and been at the discovery site same day as it was found. He provides a heartbreaking account of anecdotal reports of the destroyed medallions from the find - 100 aurei medallions as big as a saucer, with battle scene and chariot reverses.

Ben

Offline curtislclay

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Re: For father, for son: a recut solidus die
« Reply #1 on: September 08, 2020, 11:23:18 am »
Repeating a Forum post of mine from 2011:

The rumor that some huge Arras gold medallions were melted down has been convincingly refuted by P. Bastien in his monograph on the hoard, Le trésor de Beaurains (dit d'Arras), 1977, pp. 14-15.

"The foreman reported seeing a gold medallion of Nero, the size of a saucer." But it is impossible to believe that any such gigantic gold medallions were produced at such an early date!

Two workers were said to have brought two gold medallions of Constantius I to the local museum curator, and to have sold them as bullion to a jeweler when told they were fake. But the curator himself denied having condemned any medallions from the hoard.

Other coins from the hoard were alleged to have been destroyed by letting trains run over them on the railway tracks!

Bastien concludes: "Nothing in the behavior of the finders permits me to believe that they would have made such mistakes, so I think the 'numismatic tragedy' deplored by A. Evans never actually took place.

"Having misappropriated a substantial portion of the hoard, the Belgian workers spread the rumor that the coins had been destroyed or melted down. Then, in small groups and over a period of years, they sold the pieces that they had pretended no longer to possess."
Curtis Clay

Offline Heliodromus

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Re: For father, for son: a recut solidus die
« Reply #2 on: September 08, 2020, 04:12:19 pm »
The version that Evans relates is different in one detail; he'd apparently heard that some of the find (including at least one, if not both of these purported giant medallions) had been rustled over the boarder to a goldsmith/antique dealer in Ghent, Belgium, and it was the dealer who then (after a visit from the museum curator, who supposedly condemned them) had seemingly panicked and destroyed some of them. The description of the reverses seems to have come from the dealer.

This aspect of the story - of a quick sale (below bullion value, perhaps) to a gold dealer remote from the scene doesn't sound implausible, although no doubt some of the find was left to "cool off" for a while before being sold, as Sir Evans also notes would typically be the case.

Who knows the motives of whoever told this story to Evans (apparently he asked around "both sides of the border"), but it would seem counter-productive to glorify and exaggerate the size of the find if the goal was to convince authorities there was nothing (left) worth looking into. Could just be unfounded rumors and exaggeration of course!

No doubt Bastien has good reason to doubt the manufacture of such large medallions at this sort of date, but I wonder how sure we can be ... The largest gold medallion I'm aware of is the 36 solidi (80mm diameter) Justinian one stolen from the BnF (and melted?), although Evans refers to one of Valens of similar reverse type weighing around 400g.

If the Byzantines could make such a high quality medallion of this size (BM electrotype below, just for fun), then can we be sure it couldn't have been done at the time of the Tetrarchy? One could even double the flan thickness and keep diameter the same if that was the limit of what could be struck!

Anyways, regardless of the details, it's a fabulous story, and sobering to consider that things like the Chlorus "Redditor Lucis" medallion are only known from a single specimen... who knows what else has been lost or destroyed, in this case or others, that we will never know about!

Ben

Offline Heliodromus

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Re: For father, for son: a recut solidus die
« Reply #3 on: September 09, 2020, 10:19:00 pm »
So after a little bit of digging (found these in Gnecchi, then better pics from Vienna), it seems "saucer sized" (a saucer being in the eye of the gold-struck beholder) medallions may not have been out of the question around this time.

Below are RIC VII Constantinople 42, issued c.330 by Constantine, and RIC IX 27 for Valens - the one Evans must have been referring to. Both coins are well provenanced to the same 1797 Szilagysomlyo hoard, and are now in Vienna.

The Constantius II CAES one, is 94mm with the bezel, 70mm without, and weighs 256g (36 solidi).

The Valens is 98mm and weighs 412g. This is indeed a saucer-sized coin, made only 60 years after the latest coins in the Arras hoard.

The Valens one is so hideous even I might melt it if I found it, although I think I'd have spared the Justinian.

I'm not convinced it's case closed !

Ben

Offline curtislclay

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Re: For father, for son: a recut solidus die
« Reply #4 on: September 10, 2020, 12:17:56 pm »
Ben,

Bastien was aware that such large pieces were sometimes struck in the fourth cent. AD and later, but he denies that they could have been produced as early as the reign of Nero, such as the "saucer-sized" piece of Nero that the foreman of the workers who found the hoard claimed to have seen.

To quote Bastien's words: "Il est à peu près certain que les médaillons d'or de cette importance n'ont pas été frappés sous le Haut-Empire."
Curtis Clay

Offline Heliodromus

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Re: For father, for son: a recut solidus die
« Reply #5 on: September 10, 2020, 12:56:27 pm »
I just reread the Evans NC article i referred to - and double read the part about these huge medallions - and can't see any reference to Nero (or any specific emperor). He only mentions the hoard being in two parts/vases, one Antonine and one of (roughly) Diocletian's reign.

I wonder what Bastien's source was for the Nero reference ?

Ben

Offline curtislclay

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Re: For father, for son: a recut solidus die
« Reply #6 on: September 10, 2020, 04:09:23 pm »
Bastien's source was the report of the departmental archivist recording the Beaurains hoard, filed on 12 Dec. 1923, reproduced in its entirety by Bastien in his book on the hoard, pp. 219-222.

p. 219: Looking into the container soon after it was discovered and as it was being dug out, the foreman reported seeing inside it some large gold medallions, about 40 of them as he later estimated, one of which showed a portrait of Nero and looked to be about the size of a saucer.
Curtis Clay

Offline Warren

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Re: For father, for son: a recut solidus die
« Reply #7 on: September 10, 2020, 06:28:03 pm »
"The somewhat curious, and curiously spaced "VICT CONSTANT AVG" legend was apparently deliberately done to allow the same die to then be recut as "VICTORIA CONSTANTINI AVG"."

That is very remarkable. I was unaware of any such use of dies. Thank you very much for pointing it out.

Offline Heliodromus

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Re: For father, for son: a recut solidus die
« Reply #8 on: September 10, 2020, 07:27:02 pm »
Thanks, Curtis.

Given the near certainty of there not being such a Nero medallion, I wonder what to make of the foreman's statement that he saw one?!

One option is that it was a lie, but with what motivation ? I wonder to what extent he would, being foreman, have been held responsible for the loss of the find ? If he was lying to avoid trouble, then downplaying the find rather than exaggerating it by fabricating the existence of flashy unrecoverable prizes would seem smarter !

Interesting that there were apparently multiple sources for claims of large pieces in the find - both the foreman and Sir Evan's Ghent dealer. The expertise on Romans seems oddly placed here too .. we have the construction site foreman at least knowing Nero and possibly identifying him on some lesser piece, then we have Sir Evans, collector and self-styled expert on the solidus standard who (per a footnote in his NC article) had to resort to expert assistance to figure that a 500g weight would roughly equate to 100 solidi !

I wonder how many of us could find a treasure like this an not put at least ONE in their pocket before reporting the remainder !

Ben

 

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