The straight hair varieties must be early in the A.D. 193 issue. Before the mint had knowledge of the approved image of the Emperor. Both mine have curly beards....
For sure the straight hair, but let's not overlook the simple uniform beard versus the bifurcated beard on most of his curly hair coins.
Such variations are to be expected when a man became emperor when 'out of town'. Word to correct the errors would dribble in over time but we do get a variety of looks at the start of reigns. Some look a bit like predecessors while others are just guesses. Who?
That is a really interesting thing to point out, @dougsmit. I have always had to check twice to see if some denarii are actually that Of Clodius Albinus and vice versa because at the beginning of the reign, a lot of the portraits could be easily switched out for each other they were so close in appearance.
You might like this one but it has no real meaning since the coin is a plated unofficial AE denarius. The reverse is Commodus. Read the legend and look at the face. Do they match?
Lol that is funny. Clodius obverse with a Commodus reverse? And you could also say the portrait looks like Severus too.