MINTMARKS ON ANCIENT COINS

One of the most basic tasks of a numismatist is the identification of coins.

While correctly attributing the denomination, issuing authority, and date are important, determining the mint at which a coin was struck can reveal lots of contextual information. Outside of private issues and small city-states that operate only a single mint, most states control[ed] more than one mint. As a result, one would think that the moneyers from these states would want to create a clear and unambiguous system of demarcating where each coin was produced. This would seem to be advantageous for the tracking of precious metal consumption, trade, and as a guaranty against counterfeiting. However, with many of the symbols remaining highly ambiguous to today's numismatists, this was not the case.

Besides the basic devices on ancient coins, the major design images, and legends, most coins included a series of identifying symbols and letters. Most are either easily recognized mint marks or the signatures of local magistrates. Due to a lack of surviving information, however, many of these marks are of undeterminable significance. For example, included on this posthumous Alexander the Great AV stater, minted between 250-200 BCE, is a small cicada located in the reverse field beneath an H P monogram. It is unknown precisely what this small insect represents, but it may well be a mint mark.

MACEDONIAN KINGDOM. Alexander III the Great (336-323 BCE). AV stater Uncertain Black Sea mint, ca. 250-200 BCE. OBV: Head of Athena right wearing triple-crested Corinthian helmet pushed back on head. REV: Nike standing left, holding wreath and stylis; HP monogram and cicada in left field. REF: Price 1315. Image: Heritage Auctions.

While most modern mint marks are simple alphabetical abbreviations representing the city in which a particular mint operates (such as D for the Denver branch mint of the United States Mint), ancient and modern coins bear fundamental differences and as such, the mint marks on ancient coins can be either images or letters. The most common means of identifying the difference between mint marks, local control marks, and magisterial monograms is that generally speaking, any time a control mark is observed as a constant element over a long period, it is likely to be a mint-mark.

For example, in the Seleucid Empire, the Greek letters A and AP were used to represent the Antioch and Ake-Ptolemais mints, respectively.

Seleucid Empire Seleucus IV. 187-175 BCE. AR Tetradrachm, Ake-Ptolemais mint. 180-175 BCE. OBV: Diademed head right REV: Apollo seated, palm to outer left, AP to inner left, IA in exergue. REF: SC 1331; Le Rider, Séleucos 80-105; Brett 1; SNG Spaer 928. Image: CNG.

There is some confusion surrounding the mint marks used for the vast number of Alexander the Great tetradrachm types. The numismatist and historian Hyla A. Troxell estimated that over 1,075 dies were used to strike 79 types and as such there are many monograms and symbols used across the centuries. Some of the more common ones are an oenochoe (single-handed wine jug) beneath a vine for Temnos; a Corinthian helmet for Mesembria; a bee for Babylon; and an AS monogram for Aspendos.

To read the complete article, see:
On Ancient Mintmarks and Determining an Ancient Coin's Origin (https://coinweek.com/ancient-coins/on-ancient-mintmarks-and-determining-an-ancient-coins-origin/)

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