Comparing the G's that show on
Agrippina, I see that G/C as a matter of handwriting that is particularly common involving Greek cutters making Latin letters that are not found in Greek. The missing letters strike me as examples of what Benito called a Saturnalia problem. It was hard to get
good help in those days, too. The F is omitted too frequently from PF coins to allow me to accept it as an accident but I don't know if it was fully planned or just the recognition that the F was the least significant letter. We need a coin with no F and a lot of extra space at the end to show that the omission was not based on space.
How do you explain this one's
obverse? If it reads PFI before AVG should we yell error or added Invictus.
http://www.pbase.com/dougsmit/image/110210033.jpgJust because a coin does not fit a pattern we have in mind does not always mean the coin is wrong. These dies were individual pieces of
work cut by people who did things 'their way'. Some were more 'original' than others. Many couldn't spell any better than I and spelling consistently has not been an obsession through all of
history. The FILI
Volusian is certainly interesting but hardly an error.
It is almost as difficult to show coins of
Pescennius Niger that don't have an error. Examples of certain
Byzantine bronzes that do not appear
overstruck or double struck are the exception rather than the rule. There are many examples of coins that make it hard to define 'normal' too strictly.
How many have Julian bulls with eagles that weigh considerably less than their bulls without eagles? Is it
fair to say that unofficial bulls are more likely to have eagles than not?