LiciniusI-RICVII-NIR-SMHT_A-8

Licinius I, AE3, 316-317?, Heraclea, Officina 1 IMP LICI_NIVS AVG Laureate bust left, wearing imperial mantle, globe and scepter in left hand, mappa in right PROVIDENT_IAE AVGG NN Campgate with eight rows, three turrets, no doors, no star above, top and bottom rows empty blocks A in right field SMHT in exergue 19mm x 20mm, 3.37g RIC VII, -- Ex Ofek A. Coins, VCoins, December 2006 Note: This exergual mark is not known for campgates. Here's what we have from known and documented coins in RIC: SMHT with field officina mark: 313-314 PROVIDENT_IAE AVGG NN: 316-317 IMP LICINIVS AVG: 316-320 J1left bust type: 316-320 Campgate reverse type with three turrets: 316-320 So, based on the ranges of dates from the various attributes, and assuming Bruun has correctly placed the unique example with NN reverse legend in 316-317, it would be prudent to put it in the same time range as the other NN campgate. Since the exergual mark SMHT precedes the HTB exergual mark of RIC 14, I would hazard a guess this new specimen is actually from an undocumented series using what was a fairly recent exergual series and introduced the J1left bust, short Licinius legend and campgate reverse to Heraclea. Thus, preceding RIC 14 as the first Heraclean campgate in RIC VII. This chronology would stand to reason since it would give us: PROVIDENT_IAE AVGG N N - SMHT | A PROVIDENT_IAE AVGG N N - HTA PROVIDEN_TIAE AVGG - HTA PROVIDEN_TIAE AVGG - MHTA Keep in mind, the campgate reverse at this time had also not been formally rolled out to the imperial mints. Rome was the second mint to issue campgates (318-319) and all of the other mints which did use the campgate reverse didn't start until 323 or later in the AE3 module. So, this may actually be the first issue with the campgate reverse in the AE3 module entirely.