I just posted this in response to a question on the ID board, but thought I'd put it here also since it may be generally useful, and is less likely to be buried/deleted.
The pattern for
mintmarks during this time (
Constantine era) is:
- In the latin speaking west (
Italy west of
Ticinum, and west of
Italy), latin
officina letters are used (P/S/T/Q, etc)
- In the greek speaking east (east of
Italy), greek
officina letters are used (A/B/gamma/delta, etc)
Officina position, when in the
exergue, also goes by geographical location. The pattern outside of the central region (
Italy east of
Ticinum &
Pannonia) of the empire is:
- In the west, the
officina letter is at the start (= western end!) of the
mintmark (e.g. PTR, STR)
- In the east, the
officina letter is at the end (= eastern end!) of the
mintmark (e.g. SMANTA, SMANTB)
In the central region, the placement is reversed:
- In
Italy east of
Ticinum (i.e.
Aquileia,
Rome,
Ostia), the
officina letter is at the END of the
mintmark (e.g. RP, RS)
- in
Pannonia (
Siscia,
Sirmium), the
officina letter is at the START of the
mintmark (e.g. ASIS, BSIS)
There are only a couple of exceptions to this:
- Arles, always a
bit of a maverick mint, usually uses the expected latin
officina letter at the start of the
mintmark (e.g. PARL, PCONST), but occasionally latin at end (ARLP), and even greek at end (ARLA).
- Aquiileia under
Maxentius used the irregular mixed latin/greek officinas P/S/gamma, but this was regularized under
Constantine to the expected P/S/T.
When you see such a clear and logical pattern, it makes it extremely unlikely that any undiscovered
mintmark would not at least stick to the pattern, and in practical terms the chances of finding an undiscovered
mintmark (as opposed to just an unlisted
officina letter) is very small, which is why it is best to treat
mintmark matching as a "multiple
choice" question from the known
mintmarks for the mint+
type you are looking up (e.g.
Siscia VRBS ROMA, or
Thessalonica VRBS ROMA). If you think you have found a
mintmark (vs
officina letter) that is not in the reference books then unfortunately it most likely means that you have misread the
mintmark!
Ben
Author