Thanks for the compliment, @LukeGob, and for the thread bump. I have since acquired an early Milan issue for Theoderic (the more common monogram type) - I think the crudeness of this early issue offers a bit of additional support for the timeline I advanced in the OP. Cool! This is unusual, though - may I ask why he's your favourite? (In my case it's just because my first Roman coin was a Sev Alex.)