What does WNO mean on Ancient Roman coins?

Prethen

I know that NEP means Nero. But, what does WNO mean? What does the third line mean...."C"? This is on a Porcius Festus (under Nero) Prutah. NEP/WNO/C

dcamp78

Do you have a picture?

harasha

The letters are not from the Latin alphabet. It is Greek. NEPW is NERO. P is the Greek R. What you are interpreting as a W (no W in the Latin alphabet) is actually the Omega in the ancient Greek alphabet.

I do not know for what the NOC stands.

Prethen

If you do a quick search on the Net you'll find a ton of NEP WNO references. All they say about the inscription is Nero. That's why I'm wondering what the WNO Greek letters mean.

Sapyx

WNO doesn't mean anything, really, because it's the middle part of the Emperor's name, as used on coinage. "NEPWNOC" (all one word) is written using the later Greek alphabet, with W for omega and C for terminal sigma. Transliterated into Latin/English letters, it would be "NERONOS", which means "of Nero", or "by Nero", or something like that. An expert in Greek grammar (which I'm not! ) could tell you exactly what the -NOS suffix indicates.

Technically, it's not a "Roman" coin, but a "Greek Imperial" or "Roman Provincial" one.

Prethen

<< <i>WNO doesn't mean anything, really, because it's the middle part of the Emperor's name, as used on coinage. "NEPWNOC" (all one word) is written using the later Greek alphabet, with W for omega and C for terminal sigma. Transliterated into Latin/English letters, it would be "NERONOS", which means "of Nero", or "by Nero", or something like that. An expert in Greek grammar (which I'm not! ) could tell you exactly what the -NOS suffix indicates.

Technically, it's not a "Roman" coin, but a "Greek Imperial" or "Roman Provincial" one. >>


Excellent response! This is exactly what I was looking for!