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Search Advanced Search Search By Coin ID     Home ANCIENT/BYZANTINE Ancient Spain (872) Byzantine (753) MEDIEVAL/EARLY WORLD Germany (30) MODERN WORLD COUNTERFEITS AND IMITATIONS   Submit New Coin(s)   Sponsors page Terms of Service Contact Us About Us FAQ Page Coin Detail Click here to see enlarged image. ID:     80000787 Type:     Roman Imperial Issuer:     Theodosius I Date Ruled:     AD 379-395 Metal:     Gold Denomination:     Solidus Struck / Cast:     struck Date Struck:     AD 393-395 Weight:     4.41 g Die Axis:     1 h Obverse Legend:     D N THEODO_SIVS P F AVG Obverse Description:     Pearl-diademed, draped, and cuirassed bust right Reverse Legend:     VICTOR_IA AVGGG H(?) Reverse Description:     Emperor, standing right, holding standard in right hand and Victory on globe in left; his foot on captive Exergue:     COMOB Mint Mark:     COMOB/ S in left field/ M in right field Mint:     Sirmium Primary Reference:     RIC IX 014(a) Reference2:     Sirmium) Reference3:     Depeyrot 35/5 (Theodosius II Reference4:     (Sirmium); cf. DOCLR pp. 118-121 Photograph Credit:     Classical Numismatic Group Source:     http://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=133010 Grade:     EF, lustrous. Notes:     (1) Is the mint-mark a miss-cut H or some other officina mark? (2) Triton XII, Lot: 787 (3) Although the dating of this issue is fairly certain (but for Depeyrot, whose attribution is inexplicable), assignment of this type to a particular mint is controversial. The conventional attribution was, per Elmer and RIC, to the mint of Sirmium, based on the western mint marking conventions seen on this coin (S-M//COMOB). However, many numismatists had strong reservations: Sirmium had been closed for some time, the style is closer to that of eastern mints, and attributing these issues to Sirmium left Constantinople and Thessalonica without any gold issues in this period. Grierson and Mays, echoed by Kent, persuasively argue that this issue is the product of workers from Constantinople or Thessalonica (see DOCLR pp. 118-121 and RIC X p. 36). Elmer had thought that Theodosius moved to Sirmium to campaign against Eugenius, and reopened its mint to produce money for his operations, but imperial records indicate that Theodosius was actually in Constantinople for this entire period. While Grierson and Mays think these coins were issued at Constantinople or Thessalonica, Kent leaves open the possibility that the workers were temporarily outsourced to another mint. The unusual “western” quality of the mintmark seems to support this idea, and it is possible that this issue was struck at a military mint to support operations against Eugenius in the west.

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