Deo Sancto Sarapidi.

[benito]

 Draped bust of Serapis right, wearing modius. DEO SANCTO SARAPIDI  /    Nilus reclining left on rock pile, holding reed and cornucopia. DEO SANTO NILO .
1,5 cms.1,2 grs

Is it in RIC ?

[Victor Clark]

It is not in RIC because of the confusion over the date of issue. You can find it in works by Van Heesch and Vagi. The Van Heesch reference is  Numismatic Chronicle 1993, pg 67 #6. The Vagi reference is Coinage and History of the Roman Empire #2959

[*Alex]

FYI

http://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=12518.0

*Alex

[benito]

Thanks all for your information. No mention though to Alfoldi's   "a Festival of Isis in Rome under the Christian Emperors of the IVth century". It seems that in one of the plates there is a photograph of this type of coin.
BTW. The letter in the left field of the reverse is usually a B. In this coin its an A and the    is known .
Questions. Someone owns Alfoldi. Or can direct me ?
Any other coin known and published with the A ?

[*Alex]

BTW. The letter in the left field of the reverse is usually a B. In this coin its an A and the    is known .
Questions. Someone owns Alfoldi. Or can direct me ?
Any other coin known and published with the A ?

I think this is simply an officina letter. The following coin has either an A or a   but the coin is too worn for me to be sure which and I don't know how many officinae were in use at the time.

[BROKEN LINK REMOVED BY ADMIN]

There is a big thread on Festival of Isis issues which is well worth a look if your Italian is up to it.

http://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=66213.0

*Alex

[benito]

Thanks again. My Italian is good enough but things could be easier for me if the resident taliban ( while I get my Alfoldi ) wrote  an excerpt ( Italian or English) for the Deo Serapidi-Deo Sancto Nilo leaving aside the other varieties. 15-20 lines.
As you have written  the letters must shurely be for officinae. So important (with dots) to determine if a coin is only  C or R5. This one appears to be rare and will fit nicely in my LRBs collection.

[curtislclay]

Alföldi is interested in the coins labeled VOTA PVBLICA and struck without mintmark (blank exergues) at Rome.

On p. 19 he remarks that the recumbant Nile type of the VOTA PVBLICA coins "differs...from that of the autonomous coinage of Alexandria", but as far as I can see he does not catalogue that Alexandrian coinage nor even illustrate a representative specimen on his plates of comparative material.

[benito]

AFAIK  in Alfoldi plate III .36 records one like mine  with exergue ALE ,no letter in reverse field.
                         plate IV  .35  ALE  :Greek_Gamma in field. My coin except for the letter.
                         plate IV .36 ( var -obverse legend) no letter in reverse field. Ale in exergue.
Still trying to find letter A
I have also found some other references that could suit me.
Alfoldi appears to be quite expensive.

[curtislclay]

Pl. III is a VOTA PVBLICA coin, but Pl. IV indeed shows two Alexandrian issues, which I overlooked.

Alföldi refers to Laffranchi in Rivista ital. di num. 1907, who publishes an example, from the Gnecchi Coll., apparently for the first time; not in Cohen and unknown to Dieudonné who wrote an article on these anonymous pieces in 1904.

So the wlole type must be quite rare. I doubt you're going to be able to establish any differences in rarity among the varieties, unless you can find a report of an Egyptian hoard that contained a lot of them. They are all rare.

[helvetica]

There was an excellent article about these coins - practically a catalog - by Brian Rowe in the Sept 2010 issue of The Celator ("Anti-Christian Coinage of Maximinus II Daza").