I received the coin below in a small lot of silver denarii and antoniniani that I was top bidder on in a recent Roma auction. Commodus, A.D. 177-192 AR Denarius Rome mint, A.D. 192 Obv: L AEL AVREL C-OMM AVG P FEL Rev: P M TR P XVII IMP VIII COS VII P P - Victory, advancing left, holding wreath in right hand and palm branch in left; star in left field. RIC 237 16mm. 2.1 g. Note the small size and light weight. I've done a few searches and have found many Commodus denarii as small as 14mm and as light a 2.3g. 2.1g seems awfully light, though. I can find nothing on it to suggest that it is a fouree. So what do you think? Lower end of the normal range, or something funny going on? Clipped maybe?
Denarii of Commodus after his father died are often small and poorly made. The rulers that followed him restored a bit of the loss but the good old days were gone.
I have several Commodus denarii that weigh around 2 grams or so. They appear to be legitimate mint issues. From what I can tell, it is the later issues that are the lightest weight - based on a couple dozen Commodus I have, so hardly an expert opinion. The OP fits in with some of mine from that era: Commodus Denarius (186-187 A.D.) Rome Mint M COMM ANT P FEL AVG BRIT, laureate head right / HILAR AVG PM TR P XII IMP VIII COS V P P, Hilaritas standing left holding long palm and olive branch. RIC 150a; BMC 210. (2.28 grams / 17 mm) This one is one of the scarcer coins in my collection - it was issued in the last months of Commodus' reign - and weighs barely 2 grams: Commodus Denarius (192 A.D.) Rome Mint L AEL AVREL COMM AVG P FEL, laureate head right /LIB AVG VIIII P M TR P XVII COS VII P P, Liberalitas stdg. half left with abacus & cradling cornucopia; star to left. RIC 240; RSC 327. Very rare. (2.01 grams / 17 mm)
@gsimonel....Nice interesting coin...Thanks for posting your coin as I have a light weight Commodus as well at 17mm BUT ONLY 1.87gr.....!! There seems to be no signs of it being a fouree....Edge looks good...The general consencus of other experts is that its genuine..maybe silver crystallization?..Some thought its maybe a quinarius but I cannot pinpoint it!?...I have it tagged as... Commodus AR Denarius.Rome mint 186 AD 1.87gr 17mm Obverse-M COMM ANT P FEL AVG BRIT, laureate head right Reverse- P M TR P XI IMP VII COS V PP, Concordia standing front, head left, holding standard in each hand.CONC MIL (below) RIC126 It is quite a rare coin I think and the only other I could find was on CoinArchives.com but had a hefty weight of 3.4gr...!! Thoughts anyone??
Spaniard, That is Cohen 53, 8 spec. in Reka Devnia hoard, so scarce but not really rare. I don't doubt that it is authentic. The decisive criterion for a quinarius is not weight but the diameter of the circle of dots on each side of the coin: denarii c. 17-18 mm, quinarii c. 13 mm. Some 15 years ago I had a long argument with a VCoins dealer who was hoping that his underweight Commodus denarius was a quinarius and was unwilling to yield to my contention that it was undoubtedly just a denarius!
@curtislclay....Thank you!... ......Thats really good news. Is there any way of finding the actual coin from the hoard?? .....I completely agree which is why I had it tagged as a Denarius.....
I have a very lightweight denarius of Commodus, too: Commodus 177/180-192 AD. AR Denarius (17-18mm; 1.73 gm; 12h), Rome 186-189 AD. Obv: M COMM ANT PFEL AVG BRIT, laureate head, right. Rev: FORTVNAE MA-NENTI; C V P P in ex, Fortuna holding horse by the bridle and Cornucopiae seated to left on sella. RIC 191a, RSC 168a. The extreme light weight indicates a mint error(?) or ancient counterfeit. Any comments?
Workers may have made off with say 20,000 of the denarii in the hoard, but the authorities took possession of the remaining 81,000 and divided them between the local museum (Varna on the Black Sea, 12,261 coins) and the capital Sofia (68,783 coins). However for the past 50 years at least, Sofia has been refusing to show its RD coins to numismatists, leading to the suspicion that the museum staff or other government officials have been stealing them and selling them off! I know nothing certain about how many coins are still in Varna and whether numismatists are allowed to consult them.
Someone once pointed out to me that the split between Sofia and Varna suggests theft at Varna because of the relative lack of rare coins in the Varna count. For example, of the 54 total Pertinax denarii, only one was at Varna. A random or careful split would suggest something more like ten. There is also the question of why there were zero coins of Pescennius Niger reported in the hoard. There are explanations that do not involve theft but the situation looks bad.
Thanks to everyone who wrote in. I didn't realize that Commodus tried to goose the economy with lightweight denarii toward the end of his reign. Do you think that helped lead to his demise?
Commodus' Wife - Lightweight Denarius, too RI Crispina m Commodus 177 CE AR denarius 2.29g Juno stdg RIC-283
COMMODUS - He just THOUGHT he was a tough-guy! He was just a LIGHTWEIGHT (Denarius) RI Commodus 177-192 CE AR Denarius 17.7mm 2.42g Apollo Plectrum Lyre RIC 218 RSC 25 BMCRE 292 R
2.29 grams for this one! Commodus, AD 177-192. Roman AR denarius, 2.29 g, 17.2 mm, 7 h. Rome, AD 191. Obv: M COMM ANT P FEL AVG BRIT P P, laureate head, right. Rev: CONC COM P M TR P XVI COS VI, Concordia standing left, holding patera and scepter. Refs: RIC 219; BMCRE 296-97; RCV 5631; MIR 808; Cohen 45.
Here's one that I bought really early in my collecting. I've gone back and forth between it being authentic and not over the years... It's really worn so it looks a bit cast but the edges look legit. It's very light weight. I shot this photo in cloudy sunlight so it's a bit washed out looking in the photo. Commodus HERCVLI ROMANO AVG 192 AD RIC 254 17x16mm 1.85 grams