Javier Arce, Prof. Emeritus Roman Archaeology, University Lille3 (France) writes:

On our Flickr photo archive, Stuart writes:

Aren't Roman provincials fascinating? I didn't quite expect to be making a contribution of this nature for The E-Sylum, but here itgoes...

The bronze in question is an issue of Rhesaena (today's Ra's al-'Ayn, Syria) in the Roman province of Mesopotamia (part of modernIraq, Syria, and other countries), struck for the emperor Caracalla (AD 198-217). The Roman provincial coinage of Rhesaena contains some of thecrudest coins struck under the Romans that I have ever seen, especially those minted during the reign of Caracalla's numismatic twin, Elagabalus(AD 218-222). Engravers aglow with talent by comparison were responsible for cutting most of the dies under later emperors, particularly TrajanDecius (249-251).

David's coin is in remarkably good condition with a clear reverse and good centering on both sides, despite the irregular flan. The reverseappears to read "LEG III / P S," probably referring to Legio III Parthica, the Roman legion that was stationed at Rhesaena.

Here is a similar example with the letter 'Γ' on the vexillum.

http://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=9508

The legends might also differ slightly in their content. They are almost always hard to read on the early coins, even on the best preservedspecimens.

For the star-on-vexillum variety (as in David's example), we have these two specimens in the online BnF database:

http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb417437260/PUBLIC
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8473954k

http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb41847296x/PUBLIC
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b103134133

They illustrate the carelessness and/or inexperience of both engraver and minter, and the difficulty of interpreting these coins because of theseproblems. The reverse of the second coin, for instance, is pictured upside down!

For a wider view of the coinage, I recommend having a peek at the Rhesaena web page on Wildwinds:

http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/greece/mesopotamia/rhesaena/t.html

I think the principal reference on this city's coins is still The Coinage of Rhesaenain Mesopotamia (1946), by Karel O. Castelin (ANS NNM #108). I was quite surprised during my research of David's coin to have found adigitized copy of Castelin's work online, courtesy of HathiTrust!

http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001668060

If someone needs help, I probably could dig up a catalog reference from this monograph for David's coin, or at least the listed type that itmost closely resembles. Hope this helps.

David Pickup writes:

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
QUERY: ROMAN PROVINCIAL COIN ATTRIBUTION SOUGHT(www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v18n08a17.html)