Over the last few years I have been spending a lot of time thinking about rarity as it relates to ancient coins - in our hobby it is possible to be a collector of modest means and have a number of unique examples - the same cannot be said for US Coins, for example. But, the United States had not had approximately 500 mints striking an endless variety of types off and on for over a thousand years. Since this is an enormous subject I have focused on the sestertii of the Severans, pre-Alexander. This is sort of a preliminary article on one aspect involving the Caracalla sestertius above with Securitas reverse - based on the portrait I believe this type was struck shortly after the assassination of Geta. I have noticed that over the last few years this type appears to be among the most common type of Caracalla sestertius, and while I have yet not made a detailed study it does appear that there are a number of different dies. Here is where the leap comes in - rather than simply assuming that someone found a bag of a thousand and is slowly selling them off, I am going to assume that these were struck in large numbers, and that the numbers offered for sale and in existence means that a large number were struck. What is odd is that Securitas is a common type for Roman emperors but inexplicably it is extremely rare for Caracalla's father, Septimius Severus - despite looking for years I have come across only a few of these. There may be a number of reasons for this but what I would like to explore in a later article is whether there was a particular reason why Caracalla would have wanted to have lots of this type struck in a sestertii, which is more the currency of the people and why for Septimius these are extremely rare. Hopefully, this can be done without assumptions to the point of absurdity. I am going to hold off further conclusions until I spend more time looking at it. I have also found some interesting things when when researching the relative rarity of the types of the sestertii of Septimius Severus, but is for later. To pivot to another subject uploaded below is a rare type for Elagabalus with an interesting reverse inscription that I believe is related to the strange cult Elagabalus brought to Rome from the East. Of the two types of Elagabalus sestertii with an inscription that reference this cult this is by far the more rare, although neither is common. I am now for years been searching for two more types of sestertius for Elagabalus - on a horse (Adventus) and platform. According to acsearch.info only a few platform types have been sold in the major auctions in their database since 1999 - none since ca. 2008, Adventus is also extremely rare. Oddly enough, as to a type of sestertii of Elagabalus on a quadriga (or is it a biga?), a typically rare type but over the last decade it has appeared in small numbers - I have seen maybe 10 -15 for sale or in databases. The odd aspect of this is that all but a few of this type for Elagabalus appear to be from the same die, and all appear to be pretty worn. The obvious conclusion is that these reflect a find that could have been decades or even hundreds of years in the past or much more recent. Next I will supplement this with the weights, size and RIC #'s of the coins referenced. stay tuned...
Does anyone know what Securitas meant to the Romans or was it simply the security of the state after an event such as the death of the co-emperor Geta. Kind of ironic given that Caracalla murdered 20,000 people allegedly in some way affiliated with Geta. By the way, the Caracalla coin above bears a strong resemblance to the famous scowling bust of Caracalla I saw either in New York of Philly - I think a museum in Philly some years ago - that’s the theme of another article I have planned on the huge difference between the portraiture of Caracalla’s sestertii before and after the death of Geta. Dio Cassius writes of how Caracalla liked to be perceived as having a fierce expression and his coinage after the killing of Geta reflects that - boy does it reflect that!!! But I have to find the time to do these!!!
This page addresses that question: http://augustuscoins.com/ed/interesting/SECVRITAS.html Here is my Caracalla of that type: Caracalla. 32 mm. 24.00 grams. RIC 512d, page 297. Sear II 6952.
My collection is mostly silver and coins that used to be silver. I was surprised that learn that the sestertus was the coin of account for valuing things. For example when one of the short lived emperors before Septimius Severus won the purple in an auction. His winning bid, which he didn’t have the ability to pay, was in sesterti, not denari or gold pieces. Roman coins weren’t just for use as money. They were also political and public relations pieces. The emperors issues coins that honored their wives and children. Get to know and love the family! Support me!
