Hostilian Caesar Silver Coins

Antioch Mint.  Unless otherwise noted, coins are from the collection of HG.

193a	C OVAL OSTIL MES COVINTVS CAESAR  Bust radiate draped	4.25g officina mark: ....
	ADVENTVS AVG Trajan Decius on horse pacing l., raising r. hand and holding sceptre

193 var unlisted	C OVL OSTIL MES COVINTVS CAESAR  Bust radiate draped	Unusual obverse legend ("OVL" instead of "OVAL")and unlisted officina mark VII RMB collection - available for trade
	ADVENTVS AVG Trajan Decius on horse pacing l., raising r. hand and holding sceptre

194b	C OVAL OSTIL MES COVINTVS CAESAR  Bust radiate draped	4.02g officina mark: .
	AEQVITAS AVG Aequitas stg. l., holding scales and cornucopiae

194c	C VAL OSTIL MES COVINTVS CAESAR  Bust radiate draped	Unusual obverse legend 3.62g officina mark: ... From collection of 'quadrans' at the FORVM discussion board.
	AEQVITAS AVG Aequitas stg. l., holding scales and cornucopiae

194 var unlisted	C OVAL OSTIL MES COVINTVS CAESAR  Bust radiate draped	officina mark: IV From collection of Tibor at the FORVM discussion board.
	AEQVITAS AVG Aequitas stg. l., holding scales and cornucopiae

194 var unlisted	C OVAL OSTIL MES COVINTVS CAESAR  Bust radiate draped	Misspelled reverse legend. 3.48g officina mark: none From collection of 'quadrans' at the FORVM discussion board.
	AEQVTAS AVG Aequitas stg. l., holding scales and cornucopiae

195 var unlisted	C VAL HOST MES QVINTVS CAESAR  Bust radiate draped	4.29g officina mark: ... Interesting obverse spelling of name QVINTVS, which is normal at Rome, instead of standard Antioch spelling COVINTVS.
	PANNONIAE Pannonia, veiled, stg. front, head r. holding helmet and standard

196c	C OVAL OSTIL MES COVINTVS CAESAR  Bust R., radiate, draped, cuirassed	4.40g officina mark: ....
	PVDICITIA AVG Pudicitia std. l., r. hand drawing veil and holding sceptre

197 var	C OVAL OSTIL MES COVINTVS CAESAR  Bust R., radiate, draped, cuirassed	4.24g officina mark: ... Misspelled reverse ROM (sic) AETERNAE AVG
	ROM  AETERNAE AVG Roma std, l., on shield holding victory and spear.

198b corr	C OVAL OSTIL MES COVINTVS CAESAR  Bust R., radiate, draped, cuirassed	3.43g officina mark: ...
	ROMAE AETERNAE AVG Roma std, l., on shield holding victory and spear.

199b	C OVAL OSTIL MES COVINTVS CAESAR  Bust R., radiate, draped, cuirassed	3.60g officina mark: ....
	SAECVLVM NOVVM Hexastyle temple with figure (Roma?) in center

199 var unlisted	C OVL OSTIL MES COVINTVS CAESAR  Bust R., radiate, draped, cuirassed	3.89g officina mark: .
	SAECVLVM NOVVM Hexastyle temple with figure (Roma?) in center

200b	C OVAL OSTIL MES COVINTVS CAESAR  Bust R., radiate, draped, cuirassed	3.25g officina mark: .
	VBERITAS AVG Uberitas stg. l., holding purse and cornucopiae

201	C OVAL OSTIL MES COVINTVS CAESAR  Bust radiate, draped, cuirassed  r.	officina: VII (?) From collection of 'Adrian W' at the FORVM discussion board.
	VICTORIA AVG  Victory running l., holding wreath and palm

unlisted	C OVAL OSTIL MES COVINTVS CAESAR  Bust radiate, draped, cuirassed  r.	RIC does not list coins of Hostilian as CAESAR with Victory running right. 2.89g officina: IV From collection of 'quadrans' at the FORVM discussion board.
	VICTORIA AVG  Victory running r., holding wreath and palm

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I welcome you to contact me at  rbeale@sonic.net

Question: Why is QVINTVS frequently spelled COVINTVS?    Answer:  Here is Steve Minnoch's answer as posted on the FORVM site: "It does seem to be a case of confusion between Greek and Latin (OV = the closest Greek phonetic equivalent to the w sound expressed by a V in Latin). You have the same thing with the OVAL earlier in the legend, in proper Latin VAL would suffice, and the dropped H with OSTIL."  ...." It's almost as if the Q sound went through a 2-way phonetic transfer... Latin Q-> Greek Kappa-> Latin C (hard). Perhaps it was just how the person responsible thought KOVINTOS was written in Latin? Really hard to know!"

Question: RIC mentions that Gallus may have continued striking coins of Herennia after Decius' death.  Is there any evidence of this?  Answer: Normally the officina marks for Decius' coins are pellets, but on rare occasions there is the Roman numeral IV (see VICTORIA AVG coin above) or VII on the obverse of  Hostilian CAES (PUDICITIA AVG) antoninainus (Numizmatic Lanz auction 125, 28.11.2005 - lot no.992).  Heinz Grodon commented to me that this may well have been a coin struck by Gallus (very early in the reign!).  To check this idea I looked at all the known types (listed in RIC plus my database of pictures) of Antioch Coins of Decius, Herennia, Herennius, and Hostilian as Caesar- what I found is that several officinas did use Roman numerals.  They are rare for Herennia and very rare for Hostilian as Caesar but apparently do not exist for Decius and Herennius.  What does  this mean?  Only Herennia and Hostilian survived Decius' and Herennius' death at the Battle of Abrittus.  The Roman numerals appear to belong to Gallus, and I think that Gallus struck a few very rare antoniniani of Hostilian Caesar at Antioch before elevating him to Augustus, but continued issuing coins for Herennia until Hostilian's death (or some other short duration).  That would explain the relative rarities of the Hostilian Caesar and Herennia coins, and the non-existence of Decius and Herennius coins with obverse officina marks in Roman numerals.  Of course anyone can prove me wrong by producing a Herennius or Hostilian coin with Roman numberal officina! Please do that if you find one!  Update: I haven't found an antoninianus of Decius of Herennius with Roman numberals but there is a Tetradrachm (which have many of the same characeristics as the antoniniani).  Of the108 types listed for Decius by Prieur, one of them uses a "IV" officina.