Folia archeologica 28.

Katalin Bíro-Sey: Római pénzek egykorú hamisítványai a Niklovits gyűjteményből

ROMAN COUNTERFEIT COINS 95 in her left a cornucopia, on this copy the representation is reversed, even the legend is retrograde, the above text can be deciphered going from right to eft. This reversed representation, resp. the retrograde legend was caused by the fact that the counterfeiter, resp. copist copied the mirror image on the reverse, carving it into the negative, with the original before him. This became the die of the reverse and the coin struck with it showed everything in a reversed position. Considering this fact the mintmark cannot be СОН, either but something different. The illiterate die -sinker - for this can be deduced from an examination of the coin - misinterpreted the mintmark, besides having reversed it. The mintmark, looking like СОН is thus a reversed and badly copied image of mintmark AQS. The letter "H" was originally an "A", the "O" a "Q" and the letter resembling to a "C" is nothing but the upper part of an ' 'S". The mark ' 'II" in left field was originally a ' 'V" in right field of the original. This way we can attribute the original type of the counterfeit coin, being the V Aquileia mint of Maximian Herculius c (Fig. 25).

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0 Folles with similar AQS marks were struck in 301. The marks allow us to date these folles within a limited range of time. The denarius of Severus Alexander, resp. its reverse (Cat. No. 9), was, as already indicated, copied in a similar way. There is a further counterfeit coin after a follis of Maximian Herculius in the Niklovits bequest (Cat. No. 11); this is the copy of a follis of the reverse type GENIO POPVLI.

.. struck in the Siscia mint.

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1 Among the letter-like signs and lines of the obverse there are some letters copied by the illiterate die-sinker quite discernibly, as e.g. the "X" in the name Maximian. The letters before and after this X allow us the reading Maximian. The portrait gives us another proof for identifying the original of this counterfeit coin with that of Maximian Herculius, struck in the Siscia mint between 294 and 299. On the reduced follis of Licinius (Cat. No. 12) we read .. .CINIVS AVG, which shows that the original specimen was that of one of the Licinii. The reverse legend is quite unintellegible, in a wreath an inscription resembling VOT and a single-figure number (VOT/XP). The legend of the coin, served for the prototype was possibly DN LICINIVS AVG, but our coin must have been a distant copy. The NS (— like sign in exergue does not allow the identifying of the mintmark. Also the next coin is a copy of a reduced follis, struck by Licinius iunior (Cat. No. 13). The obverse represents the emperor, laureate, armoured and in paludamentum, with spear and shield looking left. The legend is wholly unintellegible. The reverse is of the type VIRTVS EXERCITVS, the legend is equally illegible. In the trophy flanked by two captives the text reads VOT/ +

/, which could be copied from an original VOT/X/; in exergue 7J7- The original was struck at Siscia in 320,

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2 the copy consequently later. Among the contemporary forgeries copies of this reverse type occur quite often. 1

0 RIC VI. Aquileia 31/b. 1

1 RIC VI. 463-468. 1

2 RIC VII. Siscia, type 123-124.