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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 2969195, member: 19463&quot;]The honest answer is probably that we don&#039;t know but I have a theory. </p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;When the cat&#039;s away, the mice will play.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>Earliest issues from Rome were not too bad but the soon coins were produced with poor quality control.&nbsp; Later coins improved considerably.&nbsp; For much of the time of poor coins, Septimius was away from Rome fighting civil wars and punishing Parthians for backing Pescennius Niger.&nbsp; After that, he campaigned in Africa so he really was not a full time presence in Rome until 204. During much of this period, he relied inappropriately on Gaius Plautianus whose daughter Plautilla was married to Caracalla quite without Caracalla having any interest in the girl.&nbsp; Your IMP X coin dates to 197-198 AD while Septimius was still otherwise occupied. After Septimius was back in town on a regular basis, the coins improved.&nbsp; After Plautianus was executed in early 205, they got a lot better.&nbsp; We don&#039;t have records that establish who appointed whom to what duties but the lack of care shown in the coins during this period suggests to me the mint was being operated by officials who did not care in what light Septimius was shown.&nbsp; It seems reasonable that they might have been appointed under Plautianus while Septimius was occupied elsewhere and knew they did not need to do good work.&nbsp; It may be too much to suggest that they were intentionally making Septimius look bad or that they were profiting&nbsp; on the side from doing poor work but I do find interest in the extreme improvement after Septimius returned to in-person control of the city.&nbsp; &#039;Why&#039; is never a question with easy and certain answers when it comes to ancient history.&nbsp; We can examine evidence and propose theories but we really do not know.&nbsp; For me?&nbsp; I&#039;ll blame Plautianus. </p><p>The late coin below has the same reverse depiction of Salus and her snake but late ones are easy to find relatively well struck on decent flans.&nbsp; There are coins like yours with much better centering but the average piece is a bit small and trashy as you have noted.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]728191[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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