Barbarous Diocletian tet or die error?

[tjaart]

Hi,

In a recent lot of Alexandrian tetradrachms, I found the following tet:

Obv: Diocletian
Rev: Elpis standing left, holding flower and skirt, AI-L across
18mm, 7.0g.

What struck me was the the year was in reverse. Usually it should be L-IA. I have two questions:

1. Is this a sign of a ancient barbarous tet or just a mint/die error?
2. Are there any imitative Alexandrian tets known?

I've not seen something similar in looking at hundreds of tets. Hopefully someone can shed some light on this one.

Thanks!

Tjaart

[iwaniw]

Tjaart:

Just a mint error. Yours is Dattari 5686.

There are a few imitative contemporary forgeries, for a number of different rulers. The contemporary (ancient) ones usually seen are the Nero (and Hadrian) ones. You can find a number in the Dattari/Savio book. Coins with a retrograde L (with other retrograde letters) are found on coins of a number of rulers. I can see find at least 12 other Diocletian coins with retrograde date letters.

There are more modern forgeries.

Iwaniw

[tjaart]

Thanks Iwaniw, I appreciate the info. I was just wondering as I've seen retrograde letters on other coins but not a full reverse of year letters. Is Dattari available online somewhere?

Was there any specific reason for using retrograde letters?

Thanks!

Tjaart

[iwaniw]

Tjaart:

Many of the retrograde dates are likely engraving errors but some are done deliberately, for example the year 11 Tyche standing of Gallienus-- multiple reverse dies. Why, I do not know.

Dattari is not online, as far as I know.

Iwaniw