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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Sulla80, post: 5315820, member: 99456&quot;]I share your discomfort which is why I start wondering - what other evidence could I find?&nbsp; For your coin, I have an immediate reaction: non-standard - which I am OK translating to a conclusion: &quot;file under non-standard, possibly an imitation or contemporary counterfeit.&quot;&nbsp; I also know that you, Curtis, Martin and others have seen and handled more Severan coins that I every will - so I assume that my judgement is built on a relatively weak foundation of experience.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here&#039;s where I find the grey-zone or discomfort - Why are there differences that I see as &quot;non-standard&quot;? </p><p>- Why did someone make this coin?&nbsp; I don&#039;t see any obvious attempt to turn cheap metal into silver coins - What was the incentive/motive?&nbsp; Wouldn&#039;t you copy a common/familiar coin?</p><p>- I cannot tell the difference between a skilled ancient forgery and an official issue.&nbsp; I like the OP coin for the portrait which looked skilled to me - and even the crude reverse with overly straight lines looked &quot;familiar&quot; - I think I&#039;ve seen other coins from eastern mints (esp. BONA SPES) with this style of drawing.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1224513[/ATTACH]</p><p>- I cannot tell the difference between official made under pressures of civil war and unofficial - I can imagine all sorts of scenarios where you might care more about coins being minted quickly or minted at all, with an urgency to pay your troops, than whether or not these coins meet the consistency and quality controls of a Roman mint.</p><p><br /></p><p>So how does a coin get out of the &quot;non-standard&quot; box? several thoughts&nbsp; </p><p>- if I can find another coin, a die match or a pattern of coins with similar portraits or reverses - for my coin I&#039;d like to see more non-standards with IMP at the end of the legend or more line drawn Monetas</p><p>- I like the idea that an analysis of the metal in the coins can provide useful evidence</p><p><br /></p><p>With no certainty, I file the OP coin as: close to AD 193 and somewhere near Laodicea, non-standard, and I see competing options...and it is fun to learn from other points of view, experience, and thoughts on relevant evidence and context.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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