Sale: CNG 63, Lot: 1550. Estimate $500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 21 May 2003.  Sold For $1200. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

VALENS. 364-378 AD. Æ 22mm (4.27 gm). Uncertain mint. Struck 368 AD. Pearl-diademed, draped, and cuirassed bust left / Two-towered camp gate, S above; COMTM. For type: cf. RIC IX 40 (Constantinople); LRBC 2089; for mintmark: cf. RIC IX 26b (Constantinople); cf. Depeyrot 25/1 (Constantinople). VF, dark brown patina. Unpublished and possibly unique. ($500)

This issue of Valens possesses some unique features. The reverse legend and type is known on an extremely rare bronze issue at Constantinople (RIC IX 40), but its mintmark is an unremarkable CONSA, unlike the unusual COMTM of the present specimen. A similar mintmark is known on a gold issue at Constantinople (Depeyrot 25/1), but with the MT ligate. While it is possible for this coin to be a bronze companion to this gold issue (the other bronze issue is chronologically grouped with it) it is also possible, based on style, that this is a bronze issue of a western mint, where mintmarks with COM are the norm. Moreover, the die cutter has transposed the legend to read GLORI-A MORA-NORVM, and such errors are more prevalent in western issues.