I'm confused !!! Help interpreting RIC

[jimwho523]

I am trying to figure out the exact RIC on a Constantine II campgate. I'm using RIC, Volume VII, pg 519.


How do I interpret the mint mark section? at the heading is SMTSA, which I interpret as Sacra Monets Thessalonica, officinae A. Looking at RIC 157, it also shows officinae B, (delta), and E. Does this mean
A) in addition to SMTSA, there is a additional mark for the B, (delta), or E officinae ? or
B) the mint mark willbe one of SMTSA, SMTSB, SMTS(delta), or SMTSE

[Robert_Brenchley]

Option B is correct.

[jimwho523]

Thanks, now for part 2

in the Obv section, for RIC 157, it lists 7(b4l.) which I take to mean, inscription 7 from page 518 (CONSTANTINVS IVN NOB C) and bust type 4 facing left? where would I find the description of b4?

[roscoedaisy]

B4 is the bust type, which you can look up in the busts section (dont know what page).  Probably Laureate, Draped and Cuirassed.

[roscoedaisy]

Forgot to say B4l means Bust B4 but facing left instead of right which is the default facing if none is listed (B4 is facing right, B4l is facing left).

[jimwho523]

OK, I found the section that describes the bust type. The only question I have left is what does the footnote mean when refering to "NaH coins" ?

[roscoedaisy]

I believe the "NaH" referred to is the Nagyteteny Hoard  but I am not 100% positive.

[jimwho523]

here is the coin. Thanks for all the help  

[roscoedaisy]

Yep, looks like Thess-157 to me too.  Nice looking coin!

Roscoe

[bruce61813]

In the sequence SMTSA , the A is the officina and can be replaced by the B,D, or E. Wact out for pellets and other mint marks.
  Other mints may put the officina first, Sissica, does this all the time.

Bruce

[helvetica]

Jim:
The footnotes often refer to the museums or hoards in which the coins were found. So it may say something like "In V 3 with off. A, 4 with off. B".. In this case the "V" refers to Vienna (there is a list of these abbreviations right at the beginning of the volume) and it means that of that particular coin, 3 were found with officina A mintmark and 4 with officina B mintmark.
In the right hand column next to the coin reference, you also often see these abbreviations (V, L, NaH etc), depending on the volume.
To speed up your work identifying these (and other) coins, download my RIC lists (in excel format) from http://www.catbikes.ch/coinstuff.htm

Helvetica