The numismatic chronicle and journal of the Royal Numismatic Society

COINAGE AND CURRENCY IN ROMAN BRITAIN. 493
Monetae, who, as we know from the Notitia, was the
principal mint official. Willers, however, has given
good reasons for referring it to the Probator = assayer,
a monetary title of which there is also evidence. 95
This officer here appears to certify the fact that the
gold of the bars is "up to sample" (AD DIGMA 96
),
and it is of special numismatic interest that the
symbol which follows his signature is the palm-branch.
On another stamp, which takes the place 97 of this on
some of the bars, the names of two officials appear
with that of Sirmium appended, and two symbols,
the palm-branch and star the palm, however, taking
the place of honour.
The use of this symbol as the mark of the principal
controller of the standard explains its frequent appearance
on coins of this period, both of the East and
"West. 93 In the West it is found not only at Sirmium
itself, but at Thessalonica, Rome, Aquileia, Milan, and
Treves. We may therefore assume that the appearance
of the palm-branch in a similar position on the coins
of the London mint, described above, must also be
taken as the special mark of the Probator Monetae.
95
Op. cit., p. 354. A stamp, moreover, on one of the gold bars
from the Aboukir find reads /////ANTIVS [P]ROBAVJT.
The inscription in this case appears in a shallow impression above
and below a more deeply punched stamp reading ACVEPPSIC
i. e. the stamp of the Signator. See Hill, Proc. Soc. Ant., xx,
pp. 92 seqq. The Aboukir bars date from the age of Diocletian.
96
Digma 8ery/i.
97 It reads Q.VIRILLVS |
ET
DIONISVS |
X SIRM ^
98 For a conspectus of its usage see Kenner, op. tit., pp. 40, 41.
The secondary controlling official of the bars apparently used
the star as his mark, which also is of frequent appearance in connexion
with exergual inscriptions on contemporary coins (op. cit.,
pp. 41, 42).