Odd mintmark on Constantinus I from Siscia

[clueless]

I have an odd piece of Constantinus I from Siscia, apprently struck around 320.

The obv legend reads CONSTANTINVS AVG and has helmeted bust to the right on it, the reverse reads VIRTVS EXERCIT, standard inscribed VOT XX and captives seated on both sides.

The mintmark is interesting and I haven't been able to find any references on this particular one, ie  / ASIS and RIC VII doesn't list this mintmark.

RIC VII knows  / ASIS and labels such coins as irregular ( RIC 138 - 139 ), but RIC doesn't list this obverse with that mint mark and as you can see from the attached picture there clearly never has been any star in the mintmark of my coin.

Any thoughts on this subject ?

[rick2]

the symbol in the left field does not look like a  chi - rho monogram at all

it does look like a star

so the mintmark for your coin is

star (in field)  ASIS or as reported in ric      * 
                                                                   --------
                                                                    ASIS
                                                                   

at the moment i dont have ric 7 in hand to check if the coin is listed

[clueless]

I arrived at the conclusion of a   instead of a   because of the knob visible at the top of the mark, using the symbols available in the forum's editor, it is like a , a stra would be  and the mark on the coin is missing the horitzontional line.

But a mintmark of   / ASIS would be interesting too, because RIC VII doesn't recognize this mark neither.

[Pekka K]

IMO this coin is RIC 138, the star is very faint.
Listed, however, only for off. B.
(See Plate 13 of RIC VII)

Pekka K

[clueless]

RIC 138 is a Licinius and helmeted. When you look at the plate in RIC, the  on the specimen pictured looks like on my specimen, but somewhat larger.

The only thing is that when I did look on my coin using a microscope I wasn't able to make out any trace of a star after ASIS, only similar surface as elsewhere around ASIS.

Interesting piece indeed.

[Pekka K]

Right you are! Your coin should be before number
138, and should be added to NOT IN RIC.

Pekka K

[Heliodromus]

I arrived at the conclusion of a   instead of a   because of the knob visible at the top of the mark, using the symbols available in the forum's editor, it is like a , a stra would be   and the mark on the coin is missing the horitzontional line.

But a mintmark of   / ASIS would be interesting too, because RIC VII doesn't recognize this mark neither.

You're right - this symbol is indeed a Christogram of sorts, and the normal form of it at Siscia only has the blob at the top to hint at it being something different to a star.

This issue, with the "Chi-Rho" in field and no star in exergue isn't listed at all in RIC (it's a different issue to that of RIC 138, presumably coming before it). I also have a specimen for Constantine I (same dies as your coin), plus one for Licinius II.

Your coin is mentioned on p.43 of "Christian Emblems on the Coins of Constantine I the Great" 1877 by Frederic Madden which references it back to Rev. Num. 1866 p.85, describing a coin then in the Kircherian Museum, maybe now in the National Museum of Rome where most of that collection ended up.

Ben

[clueless]

Thank you for the information I remember that I did pick up this piece because that  didn't ring a bell, something that in itself rings a bell 

The coin itself is better looking in plain light than on my pictures, because the illumination I use is quite harsh, but using it enables me to bring out all details better.

[clueless]

Btw, I noted that "Christian Emblems on the Coins of Constantine I the Great" 1877 by Frederic Madden is available as paperback from Amazon.

[SC]

Claude Brenot, in his "Sirmium VIII: Le tresor de Bikic-Do" (1978), notes that RIC VII is woefully incomplete when it comes to the coinage of Siscia in particular in the 318-324 period.

Brenot asserts that several issues of the VLPP and the VIRTVS EXERCIT that RIC notes as irregular are in fact regular issues.

He does note quite clearly that the Chi-rho engraved in the left field of the VIRTVS EXERCIT from Siscia almost always lack the hook at the top.  Thus  and not  .

The Bikic-Do hoard contains a coin from an issue that is either the same or very close to yours.  Coin #752 of the Bikic-Do hoard is the same as yours, even with the same obverse legend break, EXCEPT it is given with exergual mark BSIS and yours appears to be ASIS.

Shawn

[helvetica]

I had the Bikic-Do in my RIC XLS list and have just added this one under the RN number. The mintmark is, I am sure, simply ASIS - the mintmarks were pretty well centered and if there were a star at the end, the A would be further to the left.
Great find! I will be putting this one on wildwinds.

[Gert]

As Ben already noted, this is not a star. In addition to the missing horizontal bar, the top extremity seems to be a little longer than the other extremities. If it was to be a six-rayed star, that would not have been the case. This could be a monogram, not of the first two letters of XPICTOC but of the initial letters IX of his name in Greek - (Iesous Christos).

Ben, you said you owned a Licinius II - do you have a picture of that coin, by any chance?

Attached is a photo of the Licinius coin from my sold coins database.
Regards
Gert

[Heliodromus]

Gert,
Here's my Licinius II from this issue.

Not the greatest coin, but there's no sign of a star in the exergue.

Ben

[Gert]

Thanks, Ben. Always nice to see these rarities.
Regards
Gert

[clueless]

A nice detail is that the reverse of the Licinius II is struck with another die than the Constantinus pieces ->  /ASIS is clearly an actual mintmark, not an engraver's error on a single die.