Diocletian as Senior Augustus. AE 3, Reduced Follis

Diocletian as Senior Augustus; After abdiction in 305 AD, Antioch, 307 or 308 AD, Reduced Follis, 5.43g. RIC-83b or 90 (both R3). Obv: D N DIOCLETIANO FELICISSIMO SEN AVG Laureate bust r., almost half length, seen from front, wearing robe and holding branch and roll. Rx: PROVIDENTIA DEORVM QVIES AVG Providentia standing r., raising r. hand, facing Quies standing l., holding branch and scepter; ANT in exergue, A in lower middle field. With FELICISSIMO rather than BAEATISSIMO in obverse legend, apparently a rare coin and from an unlisted officina, but not fully attributable. Because of its reduced size and weight, and AVG rather than AVGG in reverse legend, our coin cannot be RIC-73a or 77a. On the other hand our coin has no bold ring after its mintmark ANT, so cannot be RIC-114, illustrated on pl. 15. That leaves either RIC-83b, with merely ANT in exergue, or RIC-90, with ANT followed by a dot, which might have been corroded away on our piece. RIC cites both of these coins only from Voetter's Gerin catalogue, and only from officina Δ=4, rating them very rare (R3). The officina on our coin, however, is very clearly A=1.