Thank you Shawn, this makes it more interesting than I originally thought. Your comments sent me off for a new
search and I happened to come across a similar coin on the following web page:
http://www.colleconline.com/fr/Artefact/Viewer/421531fc-327f-4a84-8b7f-784454f19babThe included discussion also follows similar arguments as in your comment, with the addition that
bust left has a special significance. A quick and approximate translation: "This is one of the
rare examples of left
bust existing for a bronze coin (another coin, struck at
Aquileia is referenced in
RIC IX under number 16 (d) and denoted R4, with a
reverse of
type FELICITAS ROMANORVM. The workshops of
Lyon (
RIC 26 -
RSC 56 + c and
RIC 27 -
RSC 87 + c),
Nicomedia (
RIC 20 c -
RSC 66 + c),
Antioch (
RIC.34 f (3) -
RSC 70 +
Siscia (
RIC.19b (1,3) -
RSC 72c and
RIC 20b -
RSC 86A) used this
bust left on their siliquae. A theory could be the use of a
siliqua die to strike this bronze, which may potentially reveal the workshop. The
bust left has a religious significance; it is the exception in the coinage. It is often a sign of mourning (see in particular the
portraits left for the Divine Augustii, for
Hadrian on
his bronzes, and closer to
Gratian in time, for
Constans and
Constantius II with reverses of the
type FEL TEMP, which mark the mourning of a century and the birth of a new one). The
exergue is difficult to read ... NK (?) B [...] seems to read with some reserve, SMKB, 2nd
officina in Cyzique. The
type is undoubtedly
part of the first emission of the year 367; inaugural emissions of this
type do generally not have letters in the
reverse fields. This
type, which is extremely
rare for
Gratian on bronze coins, does not appear to come from a die mix with that of a
siliqua. In fact none of the workshops having struck siliquae with a
portrait to the left has a
style similar to the present one. It is doubtless necessary to see in this
type an inaugural emission for the young
Augustus Gratian named as such at the age of 8 in 367. The
bust to the left certainly indicates the opening of a new era, he is the designated successor of the new Valentinian dynasty."
I also add a closeup of the
mintmark on my coin that I am unable to identify.
Jan