From the Gemini IV Auction, Closed January 8, 2008.
Lot # 509 - Auction is closed.Estimate: US$3000 / Price 
Realized: US$5000 
Martinian. Reduced billon follis 

Martinian. (324 AD). Reduced billon follis (1.99 gm). Cyzicus. 
IM CS MAR MARTINIANVG P F AVS (sic), bust radiate, draped, cuirassed right
IOVI CONSERVATORI, Jupiter standing left, holding Victory on globe 
and eagle-tipped scepter, on ground eagle with wreath in beak left 
and bound captive right, X / II Mu in field right, SMKB in exergue. 

RIC 16, new officina B=2. Cohen 2 (M. Mowat, 
200 Fr.). Rare usurper, extremely rare at Cyzicus mint, unpublished 
officina B. 

Martinian was made Augustus and put at the head of an army by 
Licinius I at the beginning of his civil war with Constantine I in 
324 AD, but he was put to death by Constantine soon after 
Licinius was defeated in the battle of Chrysopolis. 
Most surviving coins of Martinian, come from the mint of 
Nicomedia, with obverse legend D N M (the M sometimes omitted) 
MARTINIANVS (or MARTINIANO) P F AVG, and mintmark of the form SMNA, 
RIC Nicomedia 45–47. Coins of Martinian from Cyzicus, in contrast, 
with mintmark of the form SMKA, are much rarer. In a quick search 
we can find only the following five specimens: Officina A: (a) BM, 
illustrated in RIC VII, pl. 22, 16; (b) Gilhofer & Ranschburg / 
Hess, 22 May 1935, Franz Trau, pl. 44, 3838, perhaps the same coin 
quoted by Cohen 2 from the Mowat Collection; (c ) Harlan J. Berk, 
131st Buy or Bid Sale, 2 April 2002, lot 437. Officina B: (d) our 
coin, previously unpublished. Officina Ä: (e) Triton VIII, 11 
January 2005, lot 1246. The coins of Martinian at Cyzicus have a 
different obverse legend than at Nicomedia, beginning with the odd 
IM CS for IMP CAESAR, expanding M to MAR, and containing two errors, 
MARTINIANVI for MARTINIANVS and AVS for AVG. The blundered I in 
MARTINIANVI does not seem to have been noticed before: this word has hitherto been misread MARTINIANV (Cohen) or MARTINIANVS (RIC, Trau catalogue, Berk 131, Triton VIII). 

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