Appreciate Help

[Beano]

This is the first coin I have started cleaning. The front side cleaned fairly easily (after soaking for two months), still working on the back. Can anyone give me any information about this coin? Any info would be appreciated. Thank you.

[Flav V]

Hello,

its a Follis of Valens:

O/ D N VALEN - S P F AVG
R/ GLORIA RO - MANORVM

Mint: Sicia (because of SIS on revers exergue) Cant say more about the mark .. B SIS... (B is for officina number)

Similar coin: https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=8908971

Help for identify and learn how to identify coins: https://www.all-your-coins.com/en/blog/antique/romaines/comment-identifier-les-monnaies-romaines

[Beano]

Thank you so much! I did a couple of hours of research on this coin, and I thought it was Valens, but I was unable to find an exact match. I found three other coins that were "almost" it, but they had very slight variations in the portrait angle, tiny variations in the nose shape, and little changes in the diadem. Question: why so many variations? I read that Valens was in charge for four years. That seems like a really short period to be changing little bronze coins with minor variations. Did someone design a new coin every couple of months? I'm not interested in value, but does the fact that I could not find the exact coin when I looked through hundreds of Valens coins mean it's "rare"? Again, thanks!

[Teutoburgium]

Mintmark is hard to decipher with certainty.
There could be possibly a letter in the reverse field, which could also be corrosion.
Two GLORIA ROMANORVM from Siscia which have mintmark letter in the field could be:
RIC-IX-5b pg. 146 - rarity C (common)
RIC-IX-14b pg. 147 - rarity C

These coins are produced in great quantities, therefore many dies are cut for the same issue. This gives a number of small variations in design, produced possibly by several die-cutters. Finding an exact die-match is challenging .

Teutoburgium

[SC]

One of the big challenges when you just start identifying late Roman coins is to learn what is important and what is not.

There are some things of no importance - unless you are trying to do a die study.  In the late Roman period most of the features of the bust fall in to that category.  Big nose, small nose, two pendants on the fibula or three, none of that really matters.

As Teutoburgium said huge numbers of dies were hand made so these differences aren't ones of intentional design.

Generally what matters is at a higher level of details - what is the design, the legend, the mint and field marks, what does the bust wear on its head, etc.

SC