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Sear 810: Where did the obverse monogram come from?

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Byzantofil:
Sear 810: Where did the obverse monogram come from?

I suggest that you familiarize yourself with a strange coin example. It has been re-struck several times. In the end, it turned out to Heraclius and Heraclius Constantine follis Sear 810. Weight 5.3 grams, diameter 25x30 mm., Year XXXIII, off. B.

It is not clear to me how the monogram (#25 by Sear) ended up between the figures of Heraclius and his son. Of course, it can be assumed that this is an imprint of a reverse die, bearing the monogram of this type above M. I admit the possibility of a strike with a strong shift of the die downward relative to the coin blank. But why are there no traces of the top of the letter M on the sides of the monogram? The monogram looks like to be specially cut between the figures on the obverse.

Kevin P:
What a great find! Your coin is a variant of MIB 164c (with Sear Monogram 25 over the M). As far as I can tell, this is just the second example known of this type (with the same monogram on the obv that is present on the rev). The other is in the British Museum Collection (BMC 163, RY 24-B, 5.7gm 26mm) that is also listed in DO (DO 111). I've attached a photo of the coin from BMC Volume I, Plate XXIV. Is there a provenance on this coin you can share? I try to track these things for very rare Byzantine bronze coins.

The question you asked about your coin is a good one - what would be the reason for putting the same monogram on the obv as the rev above the M? 

To make this question even more baffling, I've enclosed photos of 2 other coins (also variants of MIB 164c around the same timeframe (RY 23-24) that have a different symbol in the same spot that looks like the Greek letter Gamma ( :Greek_Gamma:).
Example 1: SB 810, MIB 164c - RY ? Off B - 4.7gm 23mm
Example 2: SB 810, MIB 164c - RY 23 or 24(?) Off :Greek_Gamma: - 5.7gm 27mm

On the first example, the symbol touches Heraclius, but on the second it is roughly equidistant between the figures. It is tempting to think that it is a repeat of the officina letter on the reverse, but the officina for one of the coins is B.

Definitely a mystery!

Ron C2:
The first 164c plate coin obverse seems to show what I would describe as a tau-rho (  :Tao-Rho:) with and anchor bottom. This is just my description, I doubt it really represents a holy anchor.

The second and third coins show   :Greek_Gamma: on both sides, I think.

I believe the OP's coin is normally struck and that monogram was present on the die. Cool coin.

SC:
Could these be issues struck in Persian or Arab occupied territories?  By locals so without Arabic figures?

SC

Byzantofil:
I'm glad that the topic turned out to be of interest to someone. I was expecting that she might be of interest to you, Kevin.

I think that all these coins have a completely legitimate imperial origin. The second coin with monogram 25 is most likely brought from the Syria region, as I know.

Below I will add a few coins related (or presumably related) to the group with the letter gamma on the obverse.

The first coin: 4,9 grams, diameter 20x23 mm.

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