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Author Topic: An Aurelianic trial strike perhaps?  (Read 886 times)

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Offline mauseus

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An Aurelianic trial strike perhaps?
« on: October 11, 2013, 05:19:41 am »
Hi,

It surely must have been. I was recently sent this coin and, frankly, I've never seen one of this type so bad. The denarii of Aurelian usually have some care taken with them and are on roundish flans with more or less a full circle strike. This one looks like it was struck on the last scrap of metal in the place. The style is correct and there are remnants of the letter in the exergue that make be think it comes from officina B. The weight, 1.9 grammes is in the range for these, if slightly below the peak noted by King (1978, in the Sutherland festschrift). Finally the die axis of 250 degrees is a little odd. From my limited survey of the type they generally are angled around 0 degrees or 180 degrees.

Thought I'd post it here to see if any others had seen a bad denarius of Aurelian.

Regards,

Mauseus

Offline Vincent

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Re: A bad day in officina B
« Reply #1 on: October 11, 2013, 09:33:16 am »
Interesting example, I've never seen a bad Aurelian denarii myself until now....maybe it was just before quitting time at workshop B?

Offline mauseus

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Re: An Aurelianic trial strike perhaps?
« Reply #2 on: October 11, 2013, 07:15:04 pm »
Hi,

It has been suggested to me that this might be a trial strike on a rough piece of metal....

Regards,

mauseus

rick2

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Re: An Aurelianic trial strike perhaps?
« Reply #3 on: October 15, 2013, 12:26:20 pm »
how about a clipped coin
maybe reused in the late iv century

Offline Adrianus

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Re: An Aurelianic trial strike perhaps?
« Reply #4 on: October 15, 2013, 04:33:48 pm »
I would also go with the idea of a trial strike - all the Aurelian denarii that I have encountered have been neatly produced on round flans. These trial strikes often seem to have entered the currency pool which goes some way to disguise their true origins.

Regards,

Adrianus

Offline mauseus

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Re: An Aurelianic trial strike perhaps?
« Reply #5 on: October 16, 2013, 03:42:08 am »
Hi,

Thank-you for the comments.

I'm erring against clipping because of the way the coin looks in terms of the uneven metal flow that has caused the ridge on the top right of the reverse. Also the edges are rounded and cracked, rather than the flat faced that you often see with clipping. An oddity for the "don't know where to put it" pile on my desk.

Regards,

Mauseus

 

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