_Coin of Carausius_ (Vol. ix., p. 148).--C. G. is right in considering his
coin as of Carausius, who reigned from 1040 to 1046 A.U.C. I would suggest
P. F. for Pius Felix, as preferable to P. P.
The dates will show that the letters MLXXI have nothing to do with the year
1071. On other coins of Carausius we find the signs ML, _Moneta
Londinensis_, or _Moneta Londini_ (_percussa_); and MSL, _Moneta signata
Londini_. These interpretations are justified by analogy with the Roman
coins, and by the signs on coins of Constantine, MSL, which must be
interpreted as on the coins of Carausius, MLON, and MLN, _Moneta Londini_
(_percussa_). The abbreviation LN for LON is analogous to RV for _Ravenna_,
which is undoubted.
As for the letters XXI, they occur very frequently, either alone or with
others, on coins of Aurelian and his successors. They have evidently
relation to the value of the coin, and are replaced by the Greek letters
[Greek: KA], which have the same numerical value, on coins of Diocletian,
&c. As analogous signs, I may quote LXXII and OB, the corresponding Greek
letters, on amei respectively of Constantine and Valentinian, showing the
_ameus_ = 1/72 of a pound; LX on silver coins of Constantius = 1/60 of a
pound; and XCVI on denarii of Diocletian = 1/96 of a pound.
It has not yet been explained, however, in what relation these copper coins
stood to the others, so as to justify the XXI, unless Mommsen may have done
so in a book I have not seen, _Ueber den Verfall des Münzwesens in der
Kaiserzeit_, 1851. See for the particulars of the above-cited coins, Pinder
and Friedländer's _Beiträge zur Münzkunde_, p. 17. and following.