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| While this is not the only, or even highest ranking, twin portrait on my list, this coin will serve to represent the entire category of vis-a-vis portrait coins issued in the first half of the 3rd century AD in Moesia and Thrace. Most showed the emperor and his wife as here but there are a few exceptions where a single ruler substituted his mother, son or a god for the second portrait. In addition to the twin portrait, this coin has several special features that elevated it onto this list. The coin also represents the unusual denominations issued at Tomis and not seen elsewhere. Most common was the 4 1/2 assaria coin as opposed to the more usual four and five coins. It is thought that these were used to facilitate moneychanging by allowing for the difference between buying or selling a silver coin with bronzes. I am not aware of exactly how this worked on a daily basis but it might, for example, require 16 assaria to buy a silver denarius but only receive 15 1/2 when selling. On this coin the denomination is shown as delta (4) on the reverse left and the half symbol (<) on the right. Coins of this region usually have a central pit on each side - an artifact of the machine that smoothed the blanks before striking. This is normal and contributes nothing to the coin. However, on the obverse just at the edge of the pit, we also see a small raised dot that was the first thing cut into the die to serve as a central point for a compass used to layout the border of dots and circular legends. Most ancient coin dies had this dot but it was erased on most (and on the reverse of this coin) buy a central design cut more deeply into the die. The twin portrait design left a blank space where the dot could survive. This coin gains interest (to me) by the juxtaposition of the two marks that were part of the manufacturing process. The reverse figure is Nemesis - one of many types available in this series. I have always found it amazing how I have been able to find things I like about my coins. Here I am pleased that the obverse pit fell so perfectly on the ear of Philip. This coin is considerably more rare than the 4 1/2. It has a beautiful green patina and nice smile but lacks the raised, central dot and twin portrait so fell here into a supporting role. It should be obvious by now that I have well over 100 coins that I consider favorites. Some had to yield their positions. |
Our secondary coin here is a 1 1/2 assaria of Philip II also from Tomis. This denomination is marked by a ligate A< shown in retrograde (>A). The smaller flan required abbreviation of the reverse legend and making a ligature out of the last two letters (omega C) at the right.
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