Around 330 AD, the
Antioch mint was one of the really big mints in the
Roman empire, working with ten
officinae (the maximum number was fifteen around 350 AD!). Its established
mintmark during the „
Campgate“ issues was SMANTA, with SM standing for
Sacra Moneta, ANT, of course, for
Antioch, and the final letter for the
officina. This, however, was a rather long
mintmark, six letters to jam into a small
exergue. Superstition made things worse: Since the letter
, denoting
officina nine, was also the initial of the word
thanatos (death), it was supposed to bring bad luck, and was avoided where possible (the same way you won’t find a room #13 in a hotel today, so times haven’t changed that much...). Thus, the number nine was expressed not with a theta but with the combination
E (4+5). Which makes SMANT
E – seven letters in the
exergue. This was too long, so in the SMANTA series,
officina 9 wrote SMANT in the
exergue and
-E to left and right of the
campgate (image 1). So far, so
good.
But in 330, coinage was reformed once again, and – invariably – coins became smaller: from about 19.5 to 17.5 mm. The
exergue, naturally, became smaller, too. So coinage was begun with the SMANTA
mintmark, but this was discontinued very soon, and the usual „GE2“ series from
Antioch – as well as GE1, until well after
Constantine’ death – carries the
mintmark SMANA. With
for
officina 9, by the way – apparently superstitious mint-workers were given the opportunity to apply for a job in a different
officina.
In
RIC VII for
Antioch, the SMANA GE2 series starts with 86, and RIC 85 is the only GE2 coin known to RIC with SMANTA: for
Constantine I only, from
officinae B and
(image 2). Plausible as it may be that a new coinage was first struck for the principal ruler and then extended to cover
his heirs as well, it doesn’t seem so today anymore: in the forty-five years since, these coins have shown up for
Constantine II Caesar (
officina ,
http://www.notinric.hox.pl/7ant-85_conii.html)
Constantius II Caesar (image 3, off. H=8)
Urbs Roma (
http://www.notinric.hox.pl/7ant-85.html) (off. 9 - interestingly, even with the full 7-letter SMANT
E in
exergue!)
Constantinopolis (image 4, off.
=3 or I=10)
- which also proves that minting of the city
commemoratives began instantly along with the normal emission. Judging from the
rarity of the GE2 SMANTA coins, they cannot have been minted for more than one day or so.
My
Constantinopolis specimen has some encrustations which make the reading of the
mintmark difficult. As for now, I is most likely but
cannot be completely ruled out. I haven’t cleaned it yet in order not to destroy any evidence.
Since by that time coinage for
Crispus,
Fausta and
Helena had ceased, and that for
Constans and
Delmatius had not yet begun, the
obverse series seems to be
complete now (the last one missing to my knowledge
had been
Constantius II which I saw, and instantly purchased, two weeks ago).
For the normal SMANA GE2 series, many
officinae struck for each ruler, but there is a
sharp division between very common
officinae (c2 and c3 in RIC) and very
rare ones (r3 to r5). There is speculation whether the dies were given out each day anew to the different
officinae, and these „
rare“
officina strikings happened when an
officina got the wrong
obverse die, for example a
Constantine I die for
officina 9. Taking into account only the common
officinae, we have the following distribution:
Constantine I AB
(1,2,3,4)
Constantine II E
(5,6,9)
Constantius II ZH (7,8)
Urbs Roma E (9)
Constantinopolis I (10)
Except for
Constantine II’s
coins (which may be due to a redistribution of
officinae when
Constans joined in), this forms a very regular pattern: the first four
officinae for the
Augustus, then two for each
Caesar, and one for each city-goddess. It is very likely IMO that the
rare SMANTA GE2’s were struck to the same pattern, which would mean that
for
Constantine I, E for
Constantine II, and Z for Constantius are probably
still somewhere out there. A for
Constantine is here already:
http://www.notinric.hox.pl/7ant85_a.htmlBest regards,
Rupert