Similar standards for Anthony\'s legions?

[Crispvs]

Could the coins have been made at a central mint somewhere? If so the dies could have been cut by craftsmen who had a good idea of what a military standard looked like but may have been unaware of the differences between the standards of different legions but still realised the importance of celebrating particular legions on coins in order to retain their loyalty. I believe some studies of military stele from the Rhineland have concluded that many stones were carved in workshops with blank spaces where inscriptions could be carved and were then taken to the places they were to be used, where they would be inscribed with the details of the person to be commemorated and then painted accordingly. If this were the case the sculptors' knowledge of military kit would be sufficient to mean that the stone was recognisable as a soldier. The soldier's friends and freedmen, who actually knew him, could add the inscription and identifying details of hair colour, scars etc in paint, to make the generic soldier figure a representative portrait of the deceased. We may be seeing a similar process with these coins: diecutters could carve a standard design of military standards onto a coin, to identify it as a coin celebrating an army unit and then carve whichever legion's name was needed onto it as the need arose. Most craftsmen I have met have a few standard patterns which cover the majority of their work but which can be varied in detail to produce an infinite variety of specific designs. The coins seem to be of a standard design (on both obverse and reverse sides) - what differs between them is little more than the unit name. I think that sometimes when we concentrate hard on details such as this we forget the impact that standardised designs can have. Most of us today, for example, are familiar with road signs of standardised colours, shapes or sizes. These attributes immediately tell you what sort of sign it is. The specific details vary but the colour, shape or size will automatically catagorise those details. Perhaps a standardised design of military standards was enough to say 'ARMY' and then the specific detail of the unit's name told the holder which unit he or she was supposed to be thinking of at that moment.<br>
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Crispvs <p></p><i></i>