Here is an unofficial coin that I find very interesting for two reason. The first thing that I noticed about this coin is that the obverse is fairly nicely engraved with a complete legend of CONSTANTINVS AVG, while the obverse legend is complete gibberish. The inscription on the altar is decipherable only if you know it should be VOT/IS/XX. I suspect that the obverse and reverse were engraved by different people.
The second interesting thing for me about this coin is that on the reverse, many of the “letters†of the legend have depressions surrounding them. You can occasionally find these depressions on official Roman coins. These depressions have led some to speculate that Roman engravers sometimes used letter punches instead of engraving letters. I neither agree nor disagree with this idea, but rather think that there is not enough information. These same depressions are on this coin though and I believe that they were not made by a punch, mainly because each of the symbols is different. Some are similar, like the symbol that looks like an “H†but each is a little different, which indicates they were engraved versus punched—if punched, I would expect some duplication. The depressions are more evident to the right and the bottom, while the left side shows little to none of this effect.
Of course, this does not mean that punches were never used; but in this instance it seems that something else produced the depressions.
The second picture below is the exergue, where the depressions are most evident.
Constantine I
unofficial issue
BEATA TRANQVILLITAS
Circa A.D. 322
16x18mm 2.8gm
Trier copy
