★ My favorite coin in this auction. x-CNG Auction 50, lot 1687 6/23/99. Arguably, the rarest of this series and possibly the finest known example. Silvered ★

Maximianus, as Senior Augustus AD 286-305 / AD 305-310. Æ Follis (27 mm, 10.28 g). Abdication issue. Cyzicus mint. Struck 305-307 AD. D N MAXIMIANO FELISSIMO SEN AVG, laureate bust right in imperial mantle, holding olive branch and mappa / PROVIDENTIA DEORVM QVIES AVGG, Providentia standing right, extending right hand to Quies standing left, holding branch and leaning on sceptre; S F/KΔ/PTR. RIC VI 678 (Trier). Per original CNG sales description: Struck at Cyzicus, but copying the mintmark of Trier. This is perhaps one of the most unusual issues in the entire follis series. It is nearly always attributed to Trier (Treveri), but a comparison of portrait styles and an examination of follis hoards reveals that it was not struck in Trier but in Cyzicus. Two officinas struck this issue, Δ and z, and the KΔ in the field between the two figures is actually the mintmark, not the PTR. A look at the coins of Cyzicus (RIC 22-23) shows that the same two officina struck this issue without the PTR also. The appearance of Greek letters on an issue from Trier would be highly unusual. The Senior Augustus issues of Diocletian and Maximianus were struck at every mint then in operation. Apparently, the first coins of these types were prepared at (or for) Trier, and examples were sent to the various other mints to copy. At Cyzicus, the die engravers copied everything, including the Trier mintmark - and put their own mintmark in the field. Someone soon realized the mistake and new dies were prepared with the Cycicus mintmark only - and in its proper location.