Mint and Date: Nikopolis ad Istrum in Moesia Inferior, 217-218 CE.
Size and Weight: 25mm x 26mm, 10.35g
Obverse: Laureate, draped bust right, wearing aegis with snake's head rising from it.
AY K OΠΠHΛ CEVH MAKPINOC
Reverse: Snake climbing up center of tripod, its head to right.
VΠ AΓPIΠΠA NIK-OΠOLITΩN
Exergue: ΠPOC I / CTPΩ (second line is off the flan on this specimen)
Provenance: s*p*q*r (eBay), December 2007
Ref: AMNG 1716
BW Ref: 010 036 120
Note: The legends were completed by reference to the matching dies on Patricia Lawrence's web site on this page. These are her obverse H and reverse 85.
The two greenish spots on the lower right of the obverse were bronze disease. I have simmered this coin for an hour in a solution of sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate (6 Jan 2008); the spots have turned reddish-brown and should now be stable, but will need watching.