This is an interesting
thread. Thank you for posting it, Byzantofil.
I own a few
Class A1 bronzes that I have marked "
Half Follis?" I will take pics and post some of them that might be of interest on this
thread, but none of them exhibit the smoothed edges seen on these examples that have already been posted. The
weights range from 3.1-4.1gm and the maximum diameters (is that what everyone is measuring - the
largest diameter of the coin?) range from 20-24mm.
For reference, the
half follis in
Sear that would be the nearest predecessor to this one (that I am aware of) is SB 1736 (~75 years before
Class A1) and the nearest successor in
Sear is SB 1880A (~100 years after
Class A1). Both of these are very
rare - I am aware of perhaps a dozen of each. The examples listed in DO of SB 1736 (DO 7) are 3.5-5.3gm and 19-21mm. The examples I have recorded of SB 1880 are 2.3-4.7gm and 19-23mm. These coins seem right in line with the
weight of those examples, but the diameters are smaller. A possibly significant difference is that the die diameters of SB 1736 and 1880A were notably smaller such that the design (mostly) fit on the smaller
flan. That does not appear to be the case with these, where much of the design is missing.