As I said a few days ago, I finally bought my first coins since September 24th of last year (nearly 4 months). Well, the first arrived today and, I must say, for a coin that cost me less than $20 shipped, I am quite pleased. It may not win any beauty contests, but it's a nice big and heavy piece nonetheless. I have tentatively attributed it but I am not certain I have the attribution correct. So if anyone cares to take a look and affirm my attribution or correct it, I will appreciate it. SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS AE27 OBVERSE: AV K L CEP CEVHPOC, laureate and cuirassed bust right REVERSE: OVLPIANWN AGXIALEWN, city gate, flanked by two battlemented towers, four arches on wall; N in ex. Struck at Anchialus, Thrace, 193-211 AD 15.2g, 27-29mm Varbanov 205
Varbanov 205 is correct. Coins 203-207 have minor differences in the number of arches atop the city gate, or whether there is a colonnade as opposed to arches. V 205 has 5 arches - the description reads four which is incorrect. I like the coin very much. We see so many SS denarii on the forum that a provincial bronze comes as a welcome change of pace.
4 months without a coin!!!??? hallelujah! I've got an obverse die match with you I think (also anchialus). interesting that they have the same shaped flan also. nice coin, and a very cool reverse as well....congrats on ending the drought!
Here are three from Anchialus. The first (Cybele) is a die match to your obverse and the other two (Zeus and the gate) are to each other but not to yours. They did not use all that many dies for many Provincials so you find more links than you do with Imperials.
It's like riding a bike, you don't ride one for a while, no problem jump back on and buy a awesome coin, a great big beautie..very nice jw ...
Thanks for all the coin compliments gang. I got to tell you it feels good and it feels bad to get off the wagon. It feels good to have my first coin in such a long time, but I also feel like I did something wrong by buying a coin. I need therapy. Maybe it's kinda like being at sea for a long period and then stepping on dry land. It feels weird. Did anyone look at the attribution? To me it looks like the N in exergue is preceded by a faint "M" and some other letter following.
Excellent coin and I like the city gate. Must have taken so much willpower to not to hit the bid/buy button during all that time
Thanks VK, but it didn't take much will power at all. I just didn't look at any coins. I did get quite jealous of the coins posted here on CT though.
When I look closely there do seem to be some other letters. Are there any other varieties with longer mint marks/whatever?
I believe the extra you see is just roughness. All of the coins on this page have the same reverse legend but differ in where they ran out of room around the edge and switched to the exergue. chrsmat71's eagle has all of the city name around the edge. OVLPIANWN AGXIALEWN (do note our W for omega might confuse since the coin uses the standard old fashioned omega rather than the W form). The OP coin has one letter N in exergue but the omega is at the end of the circle legend. My Cybele and Zeus have very weak exerges but traces confirm both had WN in exergue while OVLPIANWN AGXIALE is clear around the edge. Finally my gate moves the E down to the exergue giving OVLPIANWN AGXIAL / EWN. The legend reads "of the Ulpian Anchialians" (genitive plural). Ulpian refers to the founding of the city by the emperor whose family name was Ulpius (Trajan). Greek for the city name we call Anchialus starts with AGXI. I recall learning in first year Greek that the Greeks hated bad sounds and changed pronunciations to be euphonious (good sounding). AGCH might sound OK to Germans but Greeks stuck in an N making the more melodious Angchi. The N was spoken but not written. Most provincial coins used the genitive plural of the people rather than just naming the city. Today we write Canada on coins from that country but the ancient way would be to write 'of the Canadians'.
I was not aware many people here had much interest in Severan Provincials. So far there have been a couple volumes of the standard reference Roman Provincial Coinage published covering Augustus through Domitian. They are huge books. In the works there is a volume that will make them look small covering only the issues of Septimius Severus. The must be a million varieties from a ridiculous number of cities. Of course many of the coins are super rare or even unique. Some are pretty spectacular. I once heard a guesstimate for publication of 2025 and believe that will be very quick work. The certainty is that the complete set from Augustus to Diocletian will make RIC look like a pamphlet.