I just picked up at the post office today a nice addition to my coin collection.

It is a brockage of a quadrans of Claudius. For those of you not familiar with the terms, a brockage is a common mint error. Roman coin dies were hinged, with the obverse (heads) on the top and the reverse (tails) on the bottom. A heated coin blank would be placed on the bottom die, the assembly closed and then the die was struck with a hammer to stike the coin. The die assembly was then opened and the coin dumped out. A brockage is when the coin sticks to the upper die and a new blank is inserted without the workers noticing. The coin is struck with the result that the mirror image of reverse of the stuck coin is impressed upon the obverse of the new blank. The new coin comes out with a good reverse on the its reverse side and a mirror image of the same reverse design on its obverse side.

And here it is:

Now, how do we know it is a Claudius quadrans? Not too evident in the scan, but clear in person, are is the partial legend DES IT, running from 10 o'clock to 12 o'clock on the good reverse of the coin. It is more clearly seen in another one in my collection, a normal Claudian quadrans here:

The full legend reads: PON M TR P IMP COS DES IT (Pontifex Maximus Tribunicia Potestas Imperator Consul Designatus Iterum) I think it is likely that this is an example of the modius variety of this coin type. That is, the obverse normally has a modius or grain measure (roughly about a peck in volume)in some form or another. Several examples of this also have the little dot bewtwen the S and C on the reverse, as is seen in this coin. An example from the Wildwinds coin site is here:

Questions?