The way people date Roman coins drives me nuts

I hang out on a few coin forums and it seems like every week someone posts a Roman coin and calls it from the reign of someone famous like Nero or Marcus Aurelius. They see a profile with a laurel wreath and just guess. Thing is, you can narrow it down way more if you look at the legend text or the reverse design. I got into this after finding a bronze coin in a junk box at an estate sale in Ohio. Spent two hours matching the worn letters to a reference site and figured out it was from Constantine II, 337-340 AD. The coin wasn't worth much but the process was satisfying. Most people skip that step and it spreads bad info across the hobby. Has anyone else noticed how many fakes or mislabeled coins end up in those bulk auction lots?

2 comments

2 Comments

coran637d ago

That part about matching worn letters to a reference site is exactly how I got my start. I had a crusty old antoninianus from a bulk lot and spent a whole evening trying to figure out why the obverse legend had "GALLIENVS" when I thought it was some later emperor. Turned out I had a Gallienus with the "peace" reverse type, the one with a standing figure holding a branch. It wasn't worth anything special but the satisfaction of getting it right was a lot better than just guessing from the bust style.

rosed327d ago

Learn to ID the rims and flan shapes too, Gallienus had those weirdly squished edges people miss.