Beast,
A couple of comments:
Yes, the early
Eastern denarii (
Antioch) are from a different
mint than the later ones (
Asia Minor), but it would appear that the later
Asia Minor series may all be from one rather than several mints.
You can't, I think, write a book about these coins based solely on the ones you manage to buy; you've got to collect all available material from museum and other private
collections and innumerable published works too, as
Metcalf did for the
cistophori! Plus, nowadays, all the material accessible via the internet.
You've got to study the
Roman coinage of
Hadrian too, since the date of the appearance of a certain
type or
legend at
Rome provides the
terminus post quem for its appearance on the
Eastern denarii. Mattingly's date of 134 for the introduction of the
obv. legend HADRIANVS AVG
COS III P P at
Rome, for example, is a major obstacle to correctly understanding the
Eastern denarii, since it is apparently a couple of years too late. Assuming an even production of
denarii year by year from 128 until 138, that
obv. legend will have been introduced at
Rome c. 131, meaning that the
Eastern denarii do not have to last beyond 132 and can be plausibly associated with Hadrian's second
provincial tour, which began in 128 and may also have ended in 131 or 132.
You have some very nice and interesting Eastern pieces, for example the three with the rarer
obv. legend HADRIANVS AVG
COS III P P that you show us above!
The last
Hadrian denarius under
mint of
Rome on your website, with
rev. COS III,
Victory seated l., 2.41 g., is in fact also Eastern.Â
Right above that coin you have two with
rev. COS III,
Aequitas standing l. I am inclined to think, though it is not yet proven, that all coins with this
type belong to the Eastern
mint, their rather
fine style being due to the fact that they are the mint's earliest coins, so
still strongly under the influence of the
mint of
Rome, perhaps even using engravers from that
mint.
Martin,
Since Hadrian's
Roman denarii too are generally on ample flans,
flan size has never been one of my conscious criteria for recognizing
Eastern denarii, but maybe it contributes to my recognition of the Eastern "
fabric"!