RSC 185d var.

Septimius Severus. AR denarius, Emesa, 193 CE; 18mm, 3.85g, 6h. BMCRE W339 var (obv. legend IMP CAE L SEP SEV PERT AVG COS I); RIC p. 138, 5 var (same); RSC 185d var (same). Obv: IMD [sic] CAE L SEP SE–V PERT AVG COS; head laureate r. Rx: FORTVNAE RE–DVCI •; Fortuna or Pietas standing l., sacrificing out of patera over lighted altar and holding cornucopia. Good F.

This coin is apparently the first of the type for Septimius Severus to be identified as bearing this distinct combination of obv. and rev. legends. A minor error can be seen in the obverse legend, whereby IMP has been misspelled as IMD; on the reverse, an interpunct (•) has been placed after REDVCI. More significantly, however, is the absence of a consulship number in the obv. legend, with COS only rather than COS I. This collector has identified only 3 other coins of Severus with COS only. The first of these, listed as RIC IV 363 (6B) in the Online Coins of the Roman Empire database (OCRE), is paired with a Mars rev. type. RIC lists the obv. legend as … L SEP SEV PERT AVG COS, referring to a coin in the Reka Devnia hoard (Mouchmov, p. 98). The ellipsis seems to indicate that the IMP CAE portion of the legend is off the flan.

Two more examples are catalogued in ERIC II and erroneously dated to 194–5. ERIC II 317 is described as a variant of RIC 385. It bears the same rev. type as the present coin, but with the legend variant FORTVNA REDVCI rather than FORTVNAE REDVCI •; that coin is referenced to Tantalus (tantaluscoins.com) no. 3114. ERIC II 318 is described as a variant of RIC 381. It bears the same rev. legend as the present coin but without the interpunct and with Fortuna seated; that coin is referenced to Tantalus no. 3113. Images of the ERIC II coins on Tantalus show that both obvs. were struck from the same die. It is unknown whether the Reka Devnia coin listed in OCRE/RIC was struck from the same die as these or from a different one. The present coin is thus perhaps the second or third known COS-only die used by Severus to strike denarii, and possibly unique with IMP misspelled as IMD.

Référence : RIC p. 13, 5 var., RSC 185d var.

Collection : Septimius Severus: Denarii of Emesa