Mints and Their Marks - Common Mint Marks

Roman Mints     Provincial Mints

Starting around the middle of the 3rd century A.D., Roman mints began incorporating mint marks as a form of control over the actions of mint officials. If a problem was found on a particular series of coins (underweight for example) , the coins could be traced to the offending mint and the officials held liable.

Mint marks are located on the reverse of the coin at the bottom in an area known as the 'exergue'. The exergue is visually set off from the rest of the reverse design by a line (see red arrow on example). However, in some cases, part of the mint mark (such as the officina or workshop) may be found in the body of the reverse design or even on the obverse. The reverse example that you see at left has a fictious mint mark of PLNA, circled in red. We will examine what this mint mark may represent later.

A mint mark was (usually) formed from three elements:

1:	A letter P (Pecunia = money), M (Moneta) or SM (Sacra Moneta = Imperial money).
2:	One to four letters representing the mint.
3:	A single letter indicating the Officina or workshop. In the Latin system, the officina was indicated by A = prima or 1st officina, B = secunda or 2nd, C = tertia or 3rd, etc. In the Greek system for some colonial or provincial mints, the system was, 1st officina is represented by Alpha, 2nd by Beta, 3rd by Gamma and so on.

So, if we take our fictious example from the coin above, we can see the mint mark is 'PLNA'. If we break it apart into the 3 elements, we can see 'P' for Pecunia, 'LN' for Londinium and 'A' for the 1st officina. In this particular case, both the 'PLN' and the 'LN' can be found in the table under Londinium. So, putting it all together we can see that this coin would have been minted in Britain (Londinium) during the first workshop.

As you learn about mint marks, you will find variations to this description. Sometimes the officina will not be found in the reverse exergue, but in the reverse field or on the obverse. Other times the Pecunia, etc letter will be missing. And still other times you will find only the mint designation in the exergue. The only way to learn is to study the coins you have and become used to the variations you will see.

Ancient Location	Modern Location	Mint Marks	Notes;
Alexandria	Egypt	AL, ALE, ALEX, SMAL	ca 294 A.D. - until closed by Leo I
Ambianum	Amiens, France	AMB, AMBI	350 - 353 A.D.
Antioch/Antiochia	Antakiyah, Syria	AN, ANT, ANTOB, SMAN	closed under Leo I
Aquileia	Aquileia, Italy	AQ, AQVI, AQVIL, AQOB, AQPS, SMAQ	ca 294 - 425 A.D.
Arelatum/Constantina	Arles, France	A, AR, ARL, CON, CONST, KON, KONSTAN	313 - 475 A.D.
Barcino	Barcelona, Spain	BA, SMBA	409 - 411 A.D.
Camulodunum	Colchester, England	C, CL	287 - 296 A.D.
Clausentum	Bitterne, England	C, CL
Carthage/Carthago	(near) Tunis, North Africa	K, KAR, KART, PK	296 - 307 A.D. and 308 - 311 A.D.
Constantinopolis	Istanbul, Turkey	C, CP, CON, CONS, CONSP, CONOB	326 - ??? A.D.
Cyzicus	Kapu Dagh, Turkey	CVZ, CVZIC, CYZ, CYZIC, K, KV, KVZ, KY, SMK	Closed under Leo I
Heraclea	Eregli, Turkey	H, HER, HERAC, HERACI, HERACL, HT, SMH	ca 291 A.D. - until closed by Leo I
Londinium	London, England	L, LI, LN, LON, ML, MLL. MLN, MSL, PLN, PLON, AVG, AVGOB, AVGPS	287 - 325 A.D. and 383 - 388 A.D.
Lugdunum	Lyons, France	LD, LG, LVG, LVGD, LVGPS, PLG	closed ca 423 A.D.
Mediolanum	Milan, Italy	MD, MDOB, MDPS, MED	ca 364 - 475 A.D.
Nicomedia	Izmit, Turkey	MN, N, NIC, NICO, NIK, SMN	ca 294 A.D. - until closed under Leo I
Ostia	Port of Rome, Italy	MOST, OST	308 - 313 A.D.
Ravenna	Ravenna, Italy	RAV, RV, RVPS	ca 5th century - ca 475 A.D.
Rome	Rome, Italy	R, RM, ROM, ROMA, ROMOB, SMR, VRB ROM	closed 476 A.D.
Serdica	Sophia, Bulgaria	SD, SER, SERD, SMSD	303 - 308 A.D. and 313 - 314 A.D.
Sirmium	near Mitrovica, Yugoslavia	SIR, SIRM, SM, SIROB	320 - 326 A.D. and  351 - 364 A.D. and  379 A.D. and  393 - 395 A.D.
Siscia	Sisak, Yugoslavia	S, SIS, SISC, SISCPS	closed ca 387 A.D.
Thessalonica	Salonika, Greece	COM, COMOB, SMTS, TH, THS, THES, THSOB, TE, TES, TESOB, TH, TS, OES	ca 298 A.D. - until  closed by Leo I
Ticinum	Pavia, Italy	T	closed 326 A.D.
Treveri	Trier, Germany	SMTR, TR, TRE, TROB, TRPS	ca 291 - 430 A.D.

City and Province	As it Appears on Coinage
Aegeae, Cilicia
Amasia, Pontus	AMACIAC
Anazarbus, Cilicia
Bostra, Arabia	BOCTPA
Cibyra, Phrygia
Damascus, Coele Syria
Emisa, Syria
Flaviopolis, Cilicia
Laodiceia ad Mare, Syria
Neapolis, Samaria
Samosata, Commagene
Seleucia Pierra, Syria
Sidon, Phoenicia
Soli-Pompeiopolis, Cilicia
Tiberias, Galilaea
Tyre, Phoenicia
Viminacium, Moesia Superior	P M S COL VIM