THE COIN THE SHOULD NOT BE - UNLISTED IMP VII PROFECTIO OF SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS

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As I have posted previously my chosen specialty are the imperial bronzes of Septimius Severus - bronze because I love the uniqueness of each coin, Septimius because I am fascinated by the historical background. And that is really what collecting ancient coins is all about - aside from the obsession or compulsion that we are born with that makes each of us a collector, our interest in ancient coins is joined with an interest in ancient history. Take away the historical background that underlies the pieces we collect and this is a barren hobby indeed.

For Septimius Severus the historical sources are few - we have the 80 book history of Cassius Dio, a Roman senator who was alive during the reign of Septimius Severus - the part dealing with Septimius exists as a later summary by a Byzantine historian; the Augustan biographies, purportedly authored by a number of individuals, but almost certainly penned hundreds of years later by one person. The part dealing with the reign of Septimius is more accurate than many of the others. And there is the history of Herodian, more journalism than history. There are a few other summaries, but in the main Herodian, Cassius Dio and the Augustan biographies are the primary written sources for the reign. All are flawed in one manner or another. In addition to the written sources, there are the remains from the reign in the form of inscriptions, statues, buildings and the like.

Another source of historical information, of course, are the of coins struck during the reign. As I have mentioned in prior articles, one of the reasons I collect the coins of Septimius is that his coins are not that well documented - in my own, relatively modest collection of Septimius sestertii, there is one coin that is not in RIC (the IMP X sestertius of Victory - the reader is referred to my article on this site), one extreme rarity (the Di Patri example) and some others that are of special interest.

Now to the coin pictured. This is an extremely rare sestertius of Septimius Severus, with Profectio on the reverse. I was able to find no other examples of Profectio for any time period for Septimius in the CNG datebase, and only two of the ACS resource. Neither of these were from the same die as my coin or from the time period marked by IMP VII, which is at the very end of the obverse inscription on the coin above. All coins of Septimius Severus with PROFECTIO on the reverse are extremely rare but I have not been able to find any other example of a sestertius of Septimius Severus with a PROFECTIO reverse with IMP VII on the obverse. There are, as mentioned below, listed coins with PROFECTIO for IMP VIII, VIIII and IX, this is the first I have found for IMP VII.

Accordingly, what makes this PROFECTIO coin even more interesting is that it marks an historical event, that is, Septimius Severus leaving the city of Rome. There are three possible historical events that could be marked by issuance of the coin. The first would be the war against Septimius' rival in the East, Pescennius Niger. According to the historical sources, the war against Niger took place in 193 AD. I have consulted David Vagi's books, "Coinage and History of the Roman Empire", which indicates at Volume II, page 126, that in 193 AD Septimius had only been acclaimed once by the legions in 193 AD, so our coin could not possibly be celebrating Septimius' trip to the east against Niger.

The next event would be the war against Clodinus Albinus. Septimius had promoted Albinus to Caesar, or second to the throne, after or just before deposing Didius Julianus in 193 AD. The historical sources are somewhat ambivalent as to who was the first to go against the other. I had always thought that Septimius went against Albinus the minute Niger was dealt with so that Septimius's children would inherit the throne. However, the Augustan history states that Albinus turned against Septimius after the victory against Niger, so perhaps it was Albinus who was the first to break the deal. Sounds like unlikely propaganda - why would Albinus do this on the heels of Septimius' major victory against Niger?

The "Profectio" on the coin pictured almost certainly has to do with the Septimius' war against Albinus. I have searched the Augustan history (page 210 in the Penguin edition) and Dio's history (Volume IX, page 205 in the Loeb edition) in order to find out if Septimius made it back to Rome after the victory against Niger, and, if so, the date that Septimius left Rome to go against Albinus. Vagi's book states that Septimius spent a year preparing for the war against Albinus so it can be assumed that he was in Rome during this time. The critical victory against Albinus took place on February 19, 1997. (See Vagi, Book 1, page 297).

Vagi's chart in Book Two, page 126 indicates that Septimius was acclaimed by the troops for the seventh time (IMP VII - the coin pictured) in 195 AD. If Septimius did leave Rome it would have been at the very end of the year. I am sure there are secondary sources that have the exact dates and I will supplement this article accordingly.

The listed PROFECTIO types of Septimius have IMP VIII (RIC 728) and IMP VIIII (RIC 740) and IMP X (RIC 746) but not our coin, IMP VII. The likely explanation is that Septimius went back and forth to the field of battle, which was in Gaul, not far from Rome. The other issues of IMP VIII, for example, ADVENTI AVG FELICISSIMO - RIC 718, indicates a march to war. The rarity of the PROFECTIO types may point to a short time of issuance when the emperor left the capital. I would need to go through the secondary sources to find the exact dates, assuming that this information is available.

Let me add that the discovery of a coin that may actually add to historical knowledge is a splendid find indeed. However, there is always the possibility that the celator simply ran out of room - that this was intended as IMP VIII and that the coin was mislabelled accidentally or even that the coin was doctored after it was found to create a rarity. I do not see the second as a possibility, not for a coin that sold for just over a hundred dollars. Also there is no reason to doubt that Septimius left the capital at some time in 195 AD - in other words the coin does not appear to conflict with the historical sources. Of course, further research may indicate otherwise - the need to consult secondary sources again. It could also be that the wear at the end of the inscription wore away the last "I" in IMP VIII, but I do not think so. However, even if this is an IMP VIII coin it is still a fascinating - and quite rare coin.

In short, I probably should have done more research before posting this article - it is likely that secondary sources or even an examination of Herodian (which I do not have but is available online) could answer some of the questions posed. But I was so excited about the coin that I just had to put it up, even though this article should have been better researched.

I do mention three possible events for the coin - the third event would be Septimius' final trip to the east, to subdue the Parthian empire. According to Dio (page 217) this took place in 198 AD. According to Vagi's chart at page 126 this would have been after or just before Septimius has been acclaimed by the troops for the eleventh time - IMP XI. This was right around the time that the Rome mint had ceased the production of imperial bronze coins for all but special events - to the delight, thousands of years later, of collectors of provincial coins, since there was a profusion of wonderful examples struck in the provinces as a result. I have wondered whether the ceasing of issuance of bronze coins was somehow a punishment of the Roman Senate, but that is fodder for another article. I should mention that there is a known Profectio type known for IMP X that almost certainly celebrated Septimius trip to the east - like all Profectio types it is extremely rare, and I have never seen an example.

And this brings me to my final word on this coin. Like many of the rare coins I have found the condition of this coin would have made some collectors pass but to me this coin has been my most important acquisition since the last coin I wrote about on this thread - I was delighted at finding it. The condition of this coin is what made it available - had it been in high grade the coin would have ended up somewhere else. But I could not be more happy with this acquisition - the possibility of the coin being a small addition to historical knowledge is wonderful - it adds to the joy of collecting ancient coins like nothing else. I only wish I had more time to add the additional facts to this write up that would make the article more interesting.

I am very much looking forward to comments from others who are interested in the coins of Septimius - what am I saying - I am very interested in any comments on this article!

I will try to substitute better photographs at a later date.

 

I can't see your coin's full legend because the image is blurry and it looks like it's mostly worn off anyway but would like to help.

On a keyword search for PROFECTIO I found just two: https://www.coryssa.org/index.php/s...arch2/yes/date_to/2020-02-15/use_checkboxes/0

However, there are over 2,000 records of S. Severus sestertii there and relatively few cataloguers go through the trouble of writing out the legends so there are probably more.

Rasiel

 

Also, the type is downright common in silver. I noted nearly a hundred in my draft for my next ERIC book. Here's a stunning aureus: https://www.coryssa.org/1235517

Not sure if any of this is helpful but, yeah, I agree that in bronzes they're extremely rare.

Rasiel

 

I have the reference work "Los Sestercois del Imperial Romano" by Juan R. Cayon. It attempts to list all the types of sestertii and has photographs of almost all the types--usually it has several photographs for common types. For Severus it lists four PROFECTIO AVG varieties, none with photographs, which makes them as a group, quite rare. They list obverses with IMP VIII, VIIII, and X, and one without an IMP number.

On the OP coin can we be sure there is not a final stroke, I, to IMP VIII removed by the corrosion at 5:00 on the obverse?

 

Thanks - I am going to post better photographs tomorrow. It would be helpful to find a die match which would conclusively answer the question as to the proper date.

 

there is always the possibility that it is worn away - the best way would be to find a coin with the same die. I have closely examined the coin and it does not appear to have another "I" but without finding another example I cannot be certain,

 

Am I doing something wrong? The link above produces huge images and no resizing to fit to my regular 1080p laptop screen. The aureus link looks normal. Is this a 'feature' with Coryssa? I did a test search for Alexandria mint denarii of Julia Domna and found 36 hits of which 14 were actually Alexandria. This is always a problem with compilation sites. The same search on acsearch returned 52 which included a few ringers (even a Vespasian???) but the Domnas were almost all correct. Many 'extra' hits come from auction listings that include section headers naming Pescennius or Septimius above Domna. I do not write search routines. I admire those who can.

 

Not sure how you got those results Doug. Did you just go straight to search and type "julia domna alexandria"? I'd imagine that would give you too many hits.

This is how I'd do it: Navigate RI>All Coins>Julia Domna and then click the Mint filter. You should see



Right away you should note two things. There are mints there that are obviously wrong and most haven't been even classified. I'd expect the number to be much higher but at the moment this section is relying on automated scripts to determine where everything goes.... it's clearly in need of the human touch to clean things up. I'll eventually get to it or if you or someone else wants to take up the task anyone can do it with the built in tools.

Now nearing 3 million records this is too big a task for any one person to keep tiptop shape. The image resizing though, that sounds like a problem I can task the programmer to fix. Thanks for the heads up.

Ps. Blake were you able to find any useful records?

Rasiel

 

I had trouble with the Coryssa site - I assumed that my knowledge of these things were not up to it - I was only able to find one Profectio sestertius in the ACS site - different date and die - next is British Museum. This type is really rare. I have a friend in Seattle with two of them. He will send images on Monday.

 

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Looks like the one type the British Museum has is a die match to mine and it is clearly IMP VIII - based on this I will completely revise my article tomorrow- still very rare but unfortunately not unlisted!

 

The British Museum has a die match and it is clearly IMP VIII - I guess I jumped the gun - I will need to revise - I do not want bad information - which this article now is - out there. Too bad since it would have made a great find. Makes me feel kind of foolish too.

 

I'll join the search and report back if I come across any.

Keep in mind, however, that Severan sestertii as a whole aren't exactly abundant. Even the most common type, RIC 719, coincidentally the same design but with added soldier leading horse, barely qualifies as "common". I found fewer than 100 sestertii in good enough condition that could be catalogued with a reasonable degree of certainty out of a pool of over 14,000 records(!!)

Rasiel

 

I started in Roman Imperial and searched for "Domna Alexandria". Doing it again now gave a few fewer. I don't know what I did different.
https://www.coryssa.org/index.php/s...kboxes/0/search_title/on/period/roman_emperor

This is certainly a problem. I can never accept assumptions of part legend readings unless they are confirmed by die links. The Severan period is full of errors made by people reading what they want to see rather than what they really see.

 

Don't mean to threadjack Blake. I'll post about this in a new thread.

 

Looking forward to seeing more photos of this sestertius. Please post the British Museum specimen as well.

 

I had mistakenly thought that this was the entire inscription - lesson learned. I will have to contact the site boss as to how to be able to revise the article- it is still an interesting coin, but I need to make substantial revisions!

 

I have not thought of the sestertii of Septimius as rare or even scarce, except that better examples are almost impossible to find. I THINK the reason for this is that the celators used by Commodus toward the end of his reign - who engraved in low relief - were still at work. Low relief means the coins wear out fast, which MAY be why there are so many worn examples. Another reason mentioned to me is that a substantial number of his sestertii come from Syria and nearby where the coins remained in circulation for many years- the same reason for the vast numbers of worn coins of Alexandria. Is any of this more than rank speculation - who knows?