VICTORIA AVGGG
ERI - NA AVG Bust of Aelia Verina to the right, draped, wearing a diadem of pearls, a necklace of pearls and long earrings. Above, the hand of God crowning her.
An angel standing left, holding a long latin cross decorated with jewels. Behind her on the right, a star.
Marks
Photo from the catalog quoted below, with kind permission of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, link to Gallica for download the catalog: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k9779112s/f11.item.r=ulrich%20bansa. Photo from: ''Marcel Platt, Hotel Drouot, 17 et 18 mars 1970, catalogue de vente de monnaies romaines et byzantines de la collection du Docteur H. Longuet''. The coin is the lot 279.
Another coin preserved at the British Museum, Registration number: R.368. Link to the coin: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_R-368.. The obverse legend can be read AEL VERI - NA AVG.. V ou ? I choosed but the letter looks like a slightly distorted Y. A third other coin is illustrated in the RIC X plate 24, n °631 and we read clearly the letter but the officina is hard to read.
For the classification of the legends and the form of the letters, click here: http:// https://www.all-your-coins.com/en/emperors/romaines-imperiales/aelia-verina.
As I said in AYC # 1, the RIC listed legends with variants V, Y etc ... without knowing which copies were used for the analysis of letters. Legends noted were they actually with V letters? Still, the officina letter has a Y shape, let's be clear: that is to say a V with a wide base. As on this copy where we can clearly see that the officina letter A has the same shape as the Y, but upside down. Anyway, the letters A on all types have the same shape as the Y's (which I describe as V with a wide base).
On the reverse I noted ''Angel'' in the description. We can also say that this is Victoria but the image of the victory at that time had indeed become that of an angel symbolizing the Christian victory. I note that this character is probably also a representation of the Empress in the guise of the angel. Indeed, the character often wears the same double pearl diadem and the clothes are decorated like those of Aelia Verina. I have noticed many times that on the coinage of various Empresses the character on the reverse is depicted as the Empress.