Featured The beginning of my Sestertii collection - The Severan boys

Thank you @curtislclay, enlightening as usual!

 

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Salaethus, I like your theme "The Severan boys" & your three sestertii , especially the Caracalla , that one is a museum piece. I like high grade coins & have never been able to afford high grade sestertii , so I've settled for nice looking provincial silver. Below are a few of my favorites .


Syria, Laodicea ad Mare, Septimius Severus, AR tetradrachm, 14.42 gm, 28 mm., struck AD 208/9, Prieur 1151.


Syria, Antioch, Caracalla, AR tetradrachm, 14.32 gm, 27 mm, struck AD 205/7. Ex Michel Prieur collection. This is a youthful Caracalla before he became completely deranged . The eagle is exceptionally well done .


Mesopotamia, Carrhae, Caracalla, Billon tetradrachm, 14.72 gm, 27 mm, struck AD 215/7, Prieur 820. This is a more mature Caracalla struck in the city where he was murdered. This is one of the "War Tets" struck in debased silver.


Syria, Antioch, Geta, AR tetradrachm 14.45 gm, 28 mm. struck c. 209/11 McAlee 719. This is a fully mature Geta.

Pictured below is a rare treasure from the Hermitage Museum, a period carved carnelian brooch with with father & sons.

 

Salaethus's question about whether the three monetas equate to specific metals is interesting.

In "A Dictionary of Ancient Roman Coins" John Melville Jones notes (on page 200), that "The three figures on the reverse must represent the three separate mints for gold, silver and bronze". However, he provides no insight into which is which.

That is likely a question for an art historian. What is the relative "ranking" of positions in a Roman group of three.

I assume the centre is the position of honor and therefore gold but that is just guess. I wonder if the current Olympic podium arrangement has any basis in ancient history.....

SC

 

@Al Kowsky many thanks, and my god - those are some beautiful tetradrachms!

@otlichnik I think the key would be in identifying the middle figure: she has the special hairdo (which I seem to recall seeing on other Roman coins, my mind is saying RR denarii but I really don't know! Maybe someone can save me! ) She also wears a sleeker dress without the extra drapery, and her scale is held highest of the three, with a flat rather than shaped cross beam. Maybe these are just variables as the die was cut, but I (total amateur) think these subtle indicators might have been enough for the Roman viewer to know who was who. In any case my best guess is it is Bronze, Gold, and Silver from left to right (The rightmost Moneta's cornucopia has two rays extending below and her scale is in the middle position). It's fun trying to find little discoveries like these

 

Nice set of coins @Salaethus and a real pleasure to see everyone else’s.

 

So I did some further digging on the question of the identity of the three Monetae. Disclaimer- I am not an expert by any stretch of the imagination, I'm simply a curious individual who enjoys seeking out little details in the ancient coins I own. I haven't been able to find any scholarly articles about this, I wonder if someone here might have any leads for me. I did find several articles about the Roman Republican mint and its vicinity to the temple of Juno Moneta. The articles I found weren't exactly useful for my investigation but I found the idea of a statue group in the Juno Moneta temple that could have inspired the image of the three Monetae tantalizing.

I wanted to test my initial observations on my coin by finding as many other examples of three Monetae coins as I could online. I found some interesting things. This medallion of Commodus makes it clear that the middle position is the position of honor, a pedestal clearly raises her above the others. I also found that for the most part, the middle Moneta, now presumably the personification of gold, generally always had the sleeker dress without the extra drapery, and with the distinct, pointed hairstyle.
I also found that the three Monetae type was used by quite a number of late 3rd century emperors on their large bronze medallions. It's interesting that the Monetae type was frequently used on these special medallions by emperors whose regular coinage had become increasingly debased and crudely minted. These medallions were certainly struck in the finest style for the time period, and note the additional detail of piles of coins below the scales. I found more examples of Probus than any other emperor, who instituted a monetary reform during his reign, though I found examples of medallions from just about every 3rd century emperor after 250 AD as well as some from the beginning of the 4th century. I noted that on many of these examples the middle Moneta carries her cornucopia reversed. A catalog of these types is certainly far beyond my scope, so I'll just post some beautiful examples I found and stop talking now!

The last thing of note is that, at least for the Monetae of Septimius Severus, the differences I noted in the cornucopiae exist across practically every die. The left-most Moneta's cornucopia seems to always be the most plain, with the least embellishments protruding from the top. The middle and right-most's cornucopiae almost always have extra rays and detail escaping from the top. Here's a good example:

 

Mine is not as clear but the left cornucopia seems to be fancier.

 

In fact practically ALL emperors of the 3rd and most of the 4th century struck AE Medallions with the three Monetae reverse (the only notable exception, for whatever reason, seems to have been Aurelian)!

The following are illustrated in Banti "I Grandi Bronzi Imperiali":

Commodus, Septimius Severus, Julia Domna, Caracalla, Geta, Elagabalus, Julia Paula, Julia Maesa, Alexander Severus, Julia Mamaea, Maximinus Thrax, Gordian III, Philippus Arabs, Volusianus, Otacilia Severa, Gallienus, Salonina, Saloninus.

The following are illustrated in Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Firenze "I Medaglioni Romani":

Claudius Gothicus, Florian, Probus, Carus, Carinus, Numerianus, Diocletian, Maximian, Galerius, Jovian, Valentinian I.

Listed in Toynbee "Roman Medallions":

Lucius Verus, Decius, Trebonianus Gallus, Valerian I, Constantius I, Maximinus Daia, Maxentius, Constantine I, Crispus, Constantine II, Constantius II, Julian, Valens, Gratian, Valentinian II

The only usurper who struck this type was Julian of Pannonia.

Here is my Moneta Medallion:



IMP C AVR NVMERIANVS AVG / MONETA AVGG
Cohen 32 (this coin); Gnecchi 9 (this coin)

 

Those three sestertii are wonderful @Salaethus

Here's an overview of some third century sestertii including late severans



Q

 

3rd century Sestertius portrait gallery (almost complete, but still needs Aemilianus and some upgrades):

 

@Cucumbor @Julius Germanicus both beautiful groups of sestertii- it is very impressive seeing them all in a compilation like that, I bet it is even more stunning having them all laid out in person! I wonder if we can see the reverses in a compilation as well!

 

As promised, here's a my first group family photo. As you can see, Caracalla is in a plastic prison and needs to be set free. (Though to be honest, I'm a little nervous about screwing it up and having plastic shards scrape or do damage to the coin surface. I am sure a prison break will happen soon though).
An additional nice surprise was the coin came with what seems to be a pretty old Harlan J. Berk ticket. I already knew the coin was sold by Gorny & Mosch in 2005, I wonder if this HJB ticket comes from before or after that sale.

 

Berk Buy or Bid Sale 151, 1 Nov. 2006, lot 524

 

Thank you again @curtislclay !

 

Here they are Sir




Q

 

Such a nice group! Thanks for posting the reverses. I love your Philip II, that is such a gorgeous coin. They are all of great style and preservation, though that one stands out for me, and I love the PRINCIPI IVVENT reverse. Poor Philip Jr. was violently murdered at the age of twelve; he couldn't possibly have had any grasp of or hand in the bloody politics that roiled around him.