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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 1799675, member: 19463&quot;]I know I am in the minority on most questions that come up but I&#039;m not a big fan of super threads like the Alphabetical listing since it does not encourage discussions beyond &#039;nice coin&#039; and tends to bring out coins we have seen before.&nbsp; I know all of you don&#039;t need to see Martin&#039;s and my entire Septimius collection again and again just because it was S day.&nbsp;&nbsp; However, Martin posted a coin of great interest to me so I&#039;m moving his coin to this new thread when I probably should just send him a &#039;conversation&#039;.</p><p><br /></p><p>When I first saw this coin, my first thought was to ask why it was called a LEG I ITAL rather than one of the other ITAL legions since the left reverse legend is missing.&nbsp; Then I saw what appears to be an I blending with the eagle&#039;s wing at the very top and do believe that the ID is correct.&nbsp; That drove me to look again at one of my favorite Legionaries:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]292026[/ATTACH]</p><p>My coin reads LEG .&nbsp; .&nbsp; ITAL with the eagle&#039;s wing clearly between the faint dots.&nbsp; There is a thick area under the wing but I have never taken it to be a I.&nbsp; Without the I, my coin is unlisted.&nbsp; My obverse die is different from Martin&#039;s but it strikes me that the portrait style is very similar suggesting to me that the two might have been cut by the same hand.&nbsp; However, Martin&#039;s obverse grated upon me as an old friend; certainly it is a die I recognized.&nbsp; Then it struck me that his LEG I ITAL used the same die as the rarest of all the legionaries LEG XXII PRI:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]292031[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]292030[/ATTACH]</p><p>This die is distinctive by the way&nbsp; the M of IMP touches the middle of the neck curve far to the right of where most dies started the IMP.&nbsp; If there is such a thing as specializing in one coin, this is mine.&nbsp; I have four not particularly nice coins of this die which was until recently thought to be the only one used with the two reverse dies reading XXII PRI.&nbsp; There have been a couple coins (one in very high grade) with PRI reverse and another obverse die show up in the market recently.&nbsp;&nbsp; The two below share the reverse die with the second of my PRI coins above.</p><p><a href="http://www.acsearch.info/record.html?id=619410" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.acsearch.info/record.html?id=619410" rel="nofollow">http://www.acsearch.info/record.html?id=619410</a></p><p><a href="http://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=24893" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=24893" rel="nofollow">http://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=24893</a></p><p>The mint at the time these coins were made seemed to be specializing in rare coins.&nbsp; Since Martin pointed out that LEG I ITAL is RD=1, I&#039;ll mention that XXII PRI is RD=0 and I have found no listing (but have seen a die duplicate) of my LEG ITAL numberless die.&nbsp; The number of people actively interested in things like this is about the same as the number of coins available but I am sorry to have missed the nice one.&nbsp; I&#039;d like to make something out of the fact that some dies seemed to have been used for several legions and some did more of their work for one.&nbsp; I have <strike>explanations</strike> wild guesses for some of these patterns but really know nothing.</p><p><br /></p><p>This is the place to show your Septimius Severus Legionary denarii.&nbsp; This is also the place to tell me of LEG XXII PRI coins other than those shown in acsearch or CNG sites.</p><p><br /></p><p>PS: My normal LEG I ITAL:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]292036[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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