I got back from the Summer FUN show yesterday. It was a great show for me with probably more dealers there than ever before. One of the coins that was at the top of my list was a Pertinax denarius. Pertinax was a Roman emperor who served for about three months in 193 AD. He succeeded Commodus who was assassinated on New Years Eve 192. He may or may not have had a part in the plot, but given his experience and long years of service, he was a logic choice to be the next emperor. Unfortunately his efforts to deal with the mess that Commodus left got him on the wrong side of the wrong people. He was murdered by members of the praetorian guard. This led to an auction to determine who the next emperor would be. Pertinax coins are rather scarce, but the biggest challenge is to find a denarius with all of the lettering readable on the obverse. I found this piece at FUN. The obverse reads IMP CAES P HELV PERTINAX AVG which translates to “Emperor caesar P Helvius Pertinax augustus.” The reverse reads VOT DECEN TR P COS. The fragments that I can decipher are "vows (something) Tribunicia Potestate (tribute of the Roman people) Consul (chief magistrate of the Roman government). I can't figure out what "DECEN" is. Does it has something to do with ten years? I don't know. I have tried the to look it up on the Internet with no success, and my reference books are of no help. Thanks to anyone who can solve this riddle.
