Septimius Severus Sestertius Africa & Others of the Year

Just before taking some time off I thought I would post some new additions to my favorite emperor (thanks to Doug Smith and Curtis Clay for the leading me to this fascinating period). To those who think that ebay is a wasteland filled with fakes, these show that it is still a place where bargains can be found.

This coin weighs in at almost 27 grams. The portrait is suburb but what is most interesting is its incredible resemblance to Clodius Albinus. If the inscription was Albinus than I would not bat an eye - it is clearly the work of the same celator that did the sestertii of Albinus - I am going to post a coin side by side with this and you can decide for yourself. It is a rare type without an aegis (??) on the portrait. The coin was purchased on ebay for under $300. It can probably be conserved and look spectacular. a

This is an As of Septimius Severus, slightly over 10 grams, cost $150.00 on ebay. I had thought that it was struck in the period 199AD to 209AD when the Rome mint struck few bronzes but the beard indicates it may have been struck later - this is the same beard that is on the later coins of Septimius. Still quite rare - less than 10 on acsearch.info.

Although the Africa sestertius above is usually considered rare it is relatively common - if you could call over 50 sold on acsearch.info common. The rest of my thoughts on this I will save for the forthcoming article on rarity and the sestertii of Septimius Severus.

Lately I lve large bronzes, have been studying the drachms of Alexandria and could not resist picking up a few. I bid this at the initial price in a euro auction, and much to my surprise and shock won it for about $350. I love the portrait which is in high relief - I suspect I will never be able to find an affordable example in this condition ever again - the photograph does not being to show how nice it is. The reverse may be relatively common, but it is fascinating.

The next one is an Alexandrian drachm shows Alexandria kissing the hand of Hadrian. It is quite a composition and well worth the $76 it was going for on ebay.

The last coin (I had one more - a drachm of Trajan - but that is for another thread) is Postumus "double sestertius" - weighs about 20 grams, and is listed as extremely rare with about five known. I think there are more than that, but the rarity and the portrait are what attracted me. This one was purchased in a euro auction - I do not recall the price, but can post it later. It was affordable, very nice and rare. I really like the portrait and the style of the inscription.

 

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Congrats, some nice coins you have an eye for quality, great buying.

 

Those are really beautiful coins. Excellent choices

 

Thanks - even though i am working and started collecting social security last year the bills have to be paid, the children are on their own but there are still expenses, so there is only so much to spend on coins -so I have to try to find good coins at good prices. So I spend an inordinate amount of time scouring the auctions - I have noticed a slight moderation of the price of mid-grade sestertii, but at the same time fewer on sale. Who knows why. Also an unfortunate result of collecting in a limited area is that when you spend 20 years collecting you start to get close to the goal, and find that there is nothing much left to buy. So I became interested in Alexandrian drachms - but there is so much wear - also other than Hadrian, the work seems kind of crude compared to the beautiful sestertii of the Rome mint. I am still grappling with that. The reverses are wonderful though - I spend ALOT of time on this hobby!!

P.S. I apologize for the typos in the article - I did it between zoom meetings - next time I will do a better job at proof reading.

 

Fantastic coins - you did very well!

 

Well it seems to be working..

 

Great coins - love the sestertius of Africa in particular.

I have the denarius version.... too bad about the flan crack though

 

I love the portrait on this denarius - the eye treatment is wonderful, the line on the forehead - the celators at the mint were unbelievably good.

 

Let me add this - i recall having discussion on Moneta about how rare Septimius Severus dupondii are. However, there are at least four maybe five for sale on ebay, which is just plain weird. I know that doesn't mean much but it is very unusual. Rarity is so weird in this hobby - oddly enough there are way more Gordian I and II sold since 1999 on the auction houses on acsearch.info than other sestertii of others who struck them and cost much less. But price is not related to rarity - too much - in this hobby - otherwise the most common sestertii of them all - Nero (over 10,000) would be cheaper But Nero's sestertii are quite beautiful. Among the most common denarii are those of Augustus - but then - it is Augustus. Still it is nice to find a type that only is known in single digits - but who knows - the next hoard may contain thousands of examples, or someone is hanging onto many of the type and are slowly releasing them. It is great when a hoard of something interesting is released and a type starts falling in price- like those small electrum coins from Mytilene and elsewhere some years back!