it must be a sestertius of Severus Alexander (222-235), reverse "Annona Augusti", same kind as this one (not my coin):
Yes, no question, that's Severus Alexander. (Note: you can read part of his name on the obverse legend "ALE" to the left of the head.) Incidentally, here are a couple of my Severus Alexander Sestertii: Purchased one year at CICF from Curtis Clay at the HJB table, from their $16 junk coins box. I have it as RIC 439 Ex Elvira Clain-Stefanelli Collection. I have this one as RIC 642. Though worn, I like the obverse bust style!
I don't have an equivalent of this sestertius but I have this as : Severus Alexander, AE as, Rome 231 Obv.: IMP. SEV. ALEXANDER AVG., laureate head right Rev.: P.M. TR.P. X COS. III P.P. / S C , Otium standing left resting on garden hoe and trashing weed.
Thank you very much. And another question. Why were these large and heavy coins made square on one side? In Rome there was an ancient automatic system where these coins were inserted? I've seen this on many coins?
I think the flan shape is reflective of the period. It seems that as the production of sestertii proceeded from the first century AD into the second and third centuries, the flans became less round in many cases. By the mid to late third century some were really square, or more correctly rectangular in shape. Here are some later sestertii that have irregular flans. Didius Julianus, sestertius, 193 AD. RIC IV 15 14.3 grams One edge has some corrosion, but the overall shape is oval. Trajan Decius, Sestertius, Rome, 249-251 AD. RIC IV 117a 20.01 grams Postumus, double sestertius, Treveri (Trier) 260-69 AD. 27.97 grams
Many years ago I watched a popular science film that this square shape of these coins was needed for some kind of Roman technical mechanisms to pay for public institutions or baths or stadiums or epodromes.
I want a copy of your reference book - this is much better than boring old RIC or the British Museum: And you didn't think we read all the attributions!