I have recently been nurturing an interest in legionary coinage, including that issued by Septimius Severus, and was able to find these 3 over the last few months. In my search for information I found this site immensely useful and interesting. http://dougsmith.ancients.info/legion4.html (You will recognize the author). These 3 examples have somewhat blurry inscriptions, both obverse and reverse, but I think I have attributed them correctly as being issued for the following legions: Gemmina, Italica, and Augusta. Gemmina, stationed at Carnumtum, was the legion personally commanded by Septimius Severus and is the one most commonly found. Italica and Augusta are somewhat less common. A very interesting and historic series of coinage issued for the legions who supported Septimius Severus. Eduard
Interesting, saw Doug talking about these kind of coins on another coin forum not too long ago. Its a very interesting series and very historical. Your examples are excellent too Ed. Look forward to seeing it grow.
The LEG VIII AVG is pretty obvious. This is probably the second most common number. The LEG --- ITAL is a bit fuzzy and off center but could be LEG I ITAL, LEG II ITAL or LEG III ITAL so you need to find the bottoms of the numerals and count. The most common of the series is LEG XIIII GEM MV. There are at least as many of these coins as all of the other numbers combined so they should be a bit cheaper if every thing else is even. However, there are many of them that are nice so they can be expensive in high grade. A problem with them, especially when on small flan is that the number XIIII is oflen split up strangely XI III or X IIII for example so you see people misreading the number. There is a legion XIII GEM but that number will never have the MV following the GEM. In fact XIIII is the only one that ends in MV so a very partial legend coin can be identified certainly if it retains the right couple letters. The rarest legion is LEG XXII PRI. I have seen fewer than ten offered for sale in the time I have been into this. There are two obverse dies and three reverses but I have only seen one coin from one of these die sets so most of them will have the same obverse. They almost never have the full legend (one or two of the ones I have seen) but are the only ones ending in PRI so can be identified with no number whatsoever. LEG XXII without PRI is much more common but still one of the less frequently seen. There are tricks for identifying many of the other part legend coins but the ITAL legions can be tough since so many are missing the number at the top of the flan. IMHO coins that can not be identified to a legion by number are worth much less than coins that can even if the identifiable coin is missing most of its legend. Legionaries from Syria (Emesa) and Alexandria mints are much harder to find and much, much harder to find nice. Beyond the numbers there are some minor variations so a set of coins is probably over 25 coins depending on how you define what is different enough to consider. This is my favorite Legionary:
Guys, than you all very much for your comments. Doug, thank you, and congratulations on your website. I inspected as closely as I could the reverse of the ITAL denarius, but could not discern anything which resembles the bottom of a numeral. The flan is just too tight and the numerals I, II, or III were left off the flan. Pity. I am most jealous of you PRI legion denarius. I will make it my goal to try to find one. I hope I do. - Legio Primigenia Pia Fidelis was stationed just across the river from where I live. Their camp and settlement now lie buried beneath what is now the city of Mainz.
