In
this column I will take a closer look at the coin in figure 3: a very special
‘coded antoninianus’, from the Siscia mint, dated 290 AD. Before it becomes
clear what is so special about this coin, it will be necessary to explain
something about the phenomenon of ‘coded coins’.
In
290, during the reign of the emperors Diocletian and Maximian, something
peculiar happened in the Siscia mint: a word appeared in the exergues of
several emissions of antoniniani. The word was ‘cut’ into three pieces, and for
each of the three officinae of the Siscia mint a part of the word appeared on
the reverse. On antoniniani bearing the portrait of Diocletian the word IOBI
appeared, while Maximian’s pieces have the word HPKOYΛI:
First (A) Emperor and Jupiter I Emperor and Hercules HP
Second (B) Emperor and Jupiter O Emperor and
Hercules KOY
Third (Γ) Emperor
and Jupiter BI Emperor and
Hercules ΛI
Figure
1 shows a complete series of three coded coins for Maximian, with the three
parts of the codeword HPKOYΛI
circled in red. Figure 2 shows the third coded antoninianus of Diocletian with
the last part of the codeword IOBI.
The
codewords probably are the ‘nicknames’ of the two emperors, Jovius and Herculius,
in Greek spelling (for further information on these interesting coins, see the
links below). Jupiter and Hercules were the patrons gods of the two emperors
and they believed to be earthly manifestations of these divinities.
I
will now turn to the coin I wanted to discuss (see figure 3). When I examined
the coin for proper identification, I soon found out something was wrong about
it. The letters in the exergue clearly read ‘XXI Γ BI’,
so I thought the coin to be the third coded coin of Diocletian (with the
letters BI in the exergue, see figure 2). But then I read the name
MAXIMIANVS on the obverse, and it became clear that this coin was not meant to
exist: all coded coins for Maximian from Siscia’s third officina have the
letters ΛI, from the codeword HPKOYΛI, in the
exergue (compare the coin on the right in figure 1).
The first
thought that came to my mind at this point was: ‘this must be a hybrid’. A
hybrid, or a ‘mule’, is the result of a slip-up during the striking of a coin.
By mistake, an obverse die of one emperor is paired with a reverse die of
another. However, this cannot be the case here. If this coin was a mule, the
reverse type would be ‘Emperor and Jupiter’ (see table and figure 2: Jupiter is
the nude figure on the right, carrying a scepter). The figure on the coin I am
discussing here is clearly Hercules, leaning on his famous club. So the reverse
type is unmistakenly one of Maximian, also called Herculius.
Not being
a mule, what can be the cause of the coming into being of this antoninianus?
This cannot be said with certainty of course, but it is fun to try and come up
with a little speculation on the matter. The first possibility is a simple engraving
error: the engraver working in officina three of the Siscian mint maybe worked
over hours and being tired, accidentally engraved the letters BI in stead of ΛI in the exergue of his die. During
striking, his error was overlooked, and here we have the result.
There
is another possibility. There is a theory that sometimes several engravers were
concerned with one die. One person engraved the type, while another was
responsible for the legends and the exergue. Specialization in the ancient
mints (see figuur 4).
The
faulty reverse die of the coin in figure 3 could be the result of a mistake by
the second engraver, responsible for the lettering. He could have engraved the
legend and exergue for Diocletian (figure 4 right) on a ‘prefabricated’ reverse
die with a scene of Maximian and Hercules (figure 4 left). Maybe he thought
that the figure of Maximian, holding a long scepter, represented Jupiter. But
whatever might be the reason, this coin will remain a rare variant of a coded
antoninianus from the Siscia mint.
Further
reading
Chip
Scoppa’s article on coded coins of Diocletian and Maximian, including a ‘mule’:
http://forumancientcoins.com/Articles/east_meets_west.htm
Doug Smith’s
page on this subject:
http://dougsmith.ancients.info/code.html
My
article on the translation of the codewords:
The
translation of the codewords EQVITI, IOBI and HPKOYΛI