Text of Roman coin [решено]

Hello everyone,

I got this coin, i know its an unknown Antoninianus of Gallienus. I am just curious what the inscriptions are.

Obverse;

Dark red = IMP

Orange = GALLIENUS

Light green = PF?

Dark yellow = AVG(G)?

Purple = Is there even text there? Looks like it.

Reverse;

White = ANNONA

Green = AVG? (+something?)

Grey = Is there text here? Looks like it.

Where the question marks are i am not sure and help would be welcome. 

Thanks in advance,

TRC 🪙

Hello look here,

https://www.wildwinds.com/coins/ric/gallienus/t.html

Hello,

I think you understood me wrong ;). It is nowhere to be found on the internet, and unknown, and am just curious what the insriptions are. Thanks non the less!

TRC

Just an FYI,  I only have a modest interest in Roman coins, so I'm nowhere near a specialist. These are taken from some notes I've picked up over the years, which I hope might be of some use to you.

On the obverse, I agree that it is IMP Gallienus. Not sure if its PF or PP, but I think PF is more appropriate, then AVGG. Any further text is lost to my eyes.

So that's coin shorthand for “Imperator Gallienus, Pius Felix Co-Augustus”.

“Emperor Gallienus, The Pius and Fortunate Co-Emperor”

It might seem a bit weird to have two emperors, but apparently he did reign with his Father from 253 to 260, before ruling alone until 268. That's what the extra G is for in AVGG. If it was a single G, that's just Augustus instead of co-augustus.

That's also why I discounted PP, as that's Pater Patraie “Father of the country”, which I'd have expected to see on a coin featuring the elder ruler rather than the younger ruler in a co-emperorship.

Ancient Rome had two words we would translate to emperor today, although that's not perhaps truly reflective.

Imperator is roughly equivalent to “Conqueror” - as I understand it, any successful battlefield commander could be declared an Imperator, the emperor got to put it on coins as a position we might better understand today as “Commander-in-Chief”.

Augustus was the first actual emperor (Julius Caesar was his adoptive father, but he himself only ever was “Dictator for Life”). Anyway, many subsequent emperors claimed some line of succession from Augustus, which “legitimised” their right to rule. By putting it on the coin, they're claiming to the world this “legitimate right to rule”.

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Reverse

Annona was the goddess personification on grain, and many emperors did give out free (or highly subsidised) grain in Rome - largely for popularity with the people. Plus the image does look like someone holding grain. That's probably correct.

Many emperors did put AVG on this side too, to remind people of the link between them and this Goddess. I think I can pick some of those letters out.  

The 3-4 O'clock position in the green is probably SC “Senatus Consultum”, “By decree of the Senate” - To become emperor still required recognition by the Senate, so that's another piece of “legitimisation”.

I don't believe there's anything in the grey area, beyond age damage which might look like symbols, and I can't quite pick out anything in the start of the green section.

But what we have is “ANNONA AVG ??? SC”.

I would roughly translate that as “The Giver of Grain, The Emperor ???, as approved by the Senate”.

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I do hope that was of some help to you, and perhaps brought you some of the knowledge you were after. As I say, amateur here so I could be wrong. And as this is the Internet, I'm sure someone will be along to correct me any minute! 😛  

Wow, what a detailed reply, thank you so so much! Very interesting!

My pleasure, always nice to be able to pass on some knowledge.

The Annona coin was a fairly common motif for the Emperors. The regular distribution of grain within Rome (the city, not the empire as a whole) was something which was basically expected and in some periods, essentially demanded, by the people of Rome. I believe I've read somewhere that some emperors disapproved of it, some may have even tried to end it but were forced to re-continue it (Often under the threat of revolt), but that might be incorrect.

So, many simply adopted it as, what we would call today, good PR. Giving out free stuff to the people of Rome would, usually, make you popular. So long as the people liked you, few politicians would directly oppose you (As they were elected by [some of] the people). If no-one opposed you, then you were safe - well, at least, as safe as a roman emperor could be…

Of course, the emperor had many other things to worry about (ensuring peace within the empire, the conquest & pacification of new lands, and a thousand other things) which could damage their reign, but the grain supply at least always gave you one “positive side” to protect you from being universally despised.

Wikipedia has a lovely article on the grain supply: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cura_Annonae

And has a shorter article on Annona (The Goddess): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annona_(mythology)

Both are nice introductory pieces, and should give you a reasonable understanding as to why this was chosen as the reverse.

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The Annona coins come in a large array of poses for the goddess, but here's a one in a similar pose from the reign of Marcus Aurelius - direct from the Numista catalogue: N#263836

In her left arm (right side of the coin), she's holding a cornucopia - the “horn of plenty”, with grain flowing out of the top. You might recognise this item as still being in use today across many parts of the world as a symbol of excess food to live on. One of the better known uses is for the US Thanksgiving holiday.

In her right arm, (left side of coin), she's holding the sheaves of grain themselves. The object by her feet (left side of coin) was called a Modius. It's a way of measuring small dry produce (like seeds or grain). These items weren't sold by direct weight as they are today, but by volume. This is also how they measured liquid (as we still do today - we buy liquids by the litre rather than by the kilogram).

A modius was, essentially, a jug. You filled the “jug” up with seed/grain usually until it reached the top, and that was your allotted allowance. Sometimes in famine periods, they might put a mark in the modius and only fill it to this mark. E.g. You might only get a “half-modius of grain” if supply was especially bad. Apparently (according to Google), a modius would hold about 8.7 litres of something.

I am gonna write this down.. I am maybe gonna need it in my Latin lessons 😅! Jokes aside, thanks so much again!

TRC

Save yourself some work - some helpful person has already put up a page with some of the most common phrases or abbreviations found on Roman Empire era coins: https://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/abb.html

There are probably hundreds of other lesser known ones which they haven't mentioned, but these are more likely to be on rare coins (Either short reign emperors, or ones made from precious metals). If you ever find yourself with another roman coin, this link is a good start for basic translation - I double checked some of my own info against it in my previous posts too.

As they themselves note, one of the other things that quite often is shown on a coin is a mint mark which is quite often letters, though I believe sometimes they use symbols too, but they don't discuss mint marks there.

As example of this I know (as it happens to be one in my personal collection) is this one.

N#57574

As you can see, it's marked “SIS” - SIS being the mint in Siscia, modern day Croatia. I've never found out what the “r” means though.

If you ever find yourself with something not on the list, use a google search: Roman Coin “unknown phrase”, so in my case I googled: Roman Coin “SIS”

By including the “” around the unknown phrase, google will only show results that explicitly contain the phrase, which makes it easier to sift through results to get the information you want. If you don't put the “” around the phrase, you'll get millions more results just featuring either roman or coins.

Often the little bit of obscure information you seek is out there somewhere, just sometimes tricky to find it!

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You're more than welcome for all the info - just be careful not to fall into the rabbit hole, you can end up searching weird bits of information about the Roman Empire for hours and hours on end, and I can assure you the knowledge we have on the Roman Empire is endless. I know, I've fallen into that trap a few times myself!

Uh oh, i think i fell in..

I know what the “r” is. It can be the officina.

Just like i have a gamma on my coin. N#107512