Martin,
I don't doubt the
Genius coin is Eastern, though I don't find that
obv. die among the many illustrated by
Strack.
The letter forms are typical, for example P P at end of
obv. legend tending to look like I I, and the slanting S of
COS on the
reverse. The slightly clumsy
style of the
types is also typical.
As you say,the
Roman model showed an
altar before the
Genius. Eastern specimens are known accurately copying that
type, with
altar,
Strack *31. Both the
Roman model and the Eastern copy with
altar are already illustrated above on p. 2 of this
thread. Yours is a new variant, with
altar omitted.
As to your 5 Aug. 2012
Aequitas coin, yes, also Eastern. The
style is clearly non-Roman.
I suspect that
all of the P P /
COS III Aequitas coins are Eastern, even when the
style is
Roman. The Eastern
mint will have started by borrowing one or more engravers from the
mint of
Rome, who then trained local staff, before themselves returning to
Rome or otherwise retiring. So the
style started as exactly
Roman, created by Rome-mint engravers, then evolved into
provincial style. The Aequitas-Moneta
type was appropriate for a monetary innovation, assuring the users that
Roman fineness and
weight was being strictly maintained! The same phenomenon repeated itself, presumably for the same reason, in
Gordian III's second
Antioch series of 242-244: the earliest coins are in Rome-mint
style and use the Rome-mint draped and
cuirassed bust, while the much larger later series uses a
cuirassed bust, never found on Rome-mint
antoniniani, and is in sloppier
style.
The coin below, which I missed a few days ago on
eBay, confirms this idea of mine. The
style is
good enough to be considered
Roman, but the
rev. legend has been changed from
COS III to
P M TR P COS III, the form that was used at
Rome only from 119 until c. 125. This form could easily have been revived at the Eastern
mint after 128, and a number of the Eastern coins shown above prove that it was indeed revived; but such a revival is very unlikely to have occurred at
Rome. This coin must be Eastern, despite its
Roman style. This
P M TR P COS III Aequitas denarius was already known to
Strack *59 (12 spec.), correctly classified as Eastern, but I hadn't really been aware of it until this
eBay specimen that I missed turned up.