The fact remains that there are certain periods that seemed to produce more plated coins than others and Antony's issues certainly attracted their share. I'm not going so far as to suggest that competing factions produced bad coins to discredit the opposition or that any of these are anything more that the lowest level of counterfeits but I'll offer a few coins from the years leading up to Actium that all share a dirty little secret beneath their silver. When it come to wartime emergencies, this period certainly ranks up there when counting 'funny' coins.
Very nice set Doug. As noted above I don't see the higher proportion of plated coins you cite. Of the coins you illustrate, the Lentulus Spint is definitely irregular - apart from the general style see the jug with its slanted decoration unlike any official coin (compare some examples below).
.. continued (due the limit of 5 pics
per post):
I don't think the Antony/Octavian is of perfectly official
style either. See two examples of the same
type below for comparison, note the lack regularity of the lettering on the
plated coin e.g. the III on the
Octavian side with each progressive I a little longer, as well as the curious
Octavian portrait with the tiny snub nose and lacking the typical chubby high cheeks, the curve on Antony's nose, the V of
III VIR R.P.C. doesn't look like a regular letter, etc.
Some of these features might be found on a solid silver coin, and even occasional true die-matches don't prove anything as malpractice at the
mint may account for some
plated coins. The Silanus issue looks
good style though the examples I have to hand show the lettering very close into Antony's
head. One can't tell anything from the Octavian/Agrippa or the
Julius Caesar in the following post due to their condition. The Nasidius looks convincing though examples shown below have much more regular lettering than the
plated coin. In short nothing tells me that any of these issues were struck by the purported issuers.
An analysis that might show that a given issue has a much higher than regular proportion of
plated pieces, and these struck from dies shared with real pieces, might be convincing proof that the
plated coins were issues alongside the real coins. For virtually all issues that evidence does not exist, but it does seem to exists for the Cornuficius where five out of 15 examples known of one
type are
plated, and from the same dies as the 10 solid silver pieces. In that case I can well believe that the
plated coins were struck by Cornuficius.
I'm not disputing that some wartime
plated issues might have been by
the Imperators themselves. I just haven't seen much evidence, except in specific
rare cases.