I know that Doug has a few barbarous Legionary coins of Septimius Severus but I had yet to have the chance of getting one. This one seems very close in style (to my eyes at least) to a Virtus barb that Doug owns. Septimius Severus barbarous imitation denarius Obv:- IMV (sic) CAE L SEP SEV PERT AVG, Laureate head right Rev:- LEG II ADIVT / TR P COS, Legionary eagle between two standards Barbarous imitation of coins minted in Rome. A.D. 193 Reference:- cf RIC 5 The coin appears to be solid silver. There is a flan crack and looking into it under magnification the inner area appears to be silver. There are coppery spots but these appear to be sufrace adhesions. The style of the reverse is pretty good. There is a major issue on the surface on the reverse in the bottom sector below the eagle. I cannot explain this. Martin
I agree with Martin' views on the coin. I'm not sure at what point we stop calling such coin barbarous and start considering a previously unrecognized official mint for a specific purpose. It could be travelling or located in a place that needed cash right away and had a mint that could be pressed into use. We may never know. All below are silver (not fourree). Most are barbarous? All? Same obverse die???
Doug. I initially thought that your Virtus was from the same die but yours starts IMP and mine starts IMV. They do seem by the same hand though.
Embarassed I missed that. Thre is another thing that bothers me about 'barbarous' coins. Many seem not to me copies of known official coins but suggest the cutter was not simply copying a coin in hand. The last coin shows PART MAXI on the obverse. The copyist knew the word well enough to know the next letter even though the regular coins end with X? The reverse uses FELICIT AVGVS but regular ones all read AVG? IDK! I understand miscopying. I understand omissions. Expanding with the correct letters is harder for me to understand if the cutters were 'barbarians' or even just non-Latin speakers.
