One of my latest additions, just love the portrait! Septimius Severus AR Denarius, Rome 208 A.D. SEVERVS PIVS AVG - Laureate bust right PM TRP XVI COS III PP - Concordia seated left, holding patera and sceptre
There are at least two Sep Sev specialists on this forum with outstanding coins. However, this coin is as nice as most I've seen.
Thanks! Got a great deal on it too! Some guy who used a scanner, turned out way nicer than I expected!
For a reason I am not sure I understand, I have always specialized in the coins of the first few years of Septimius' reign and pretty much ignored the later Roman ones. Why? I am not sure but I have more Alexandria mint coins than Rome mint after they started using the Severus Pius legend.
Bizarrely I find myself in a similar situation to Doug. I bought a couple of later Rome mint issues when I started out especially with BRIT legends but have not bought a later Rome mint issue for many years. The only Rome mint coins I have bought in recent times have been a couple of legionaries, IMP II rarities and the odd early mule. Looking through my collection it would appear that I have parted with every coin that I did buy from these later Rome issues. They have some excellent quality engraving and the skills of the engravers is evident and excellently illustrated by the example above but for some reason they fall outside my area of focus. Martin
The history of the rule of Septimius Severus breaks into two phases. The early years saw him fighting for his position and punishing powers foreign and domestic that opposed him. When he was finished with this, he settled back into unopposed rule but still engaged in foreign wars in Germany and Britain. This later period is distinguished on coins by his charactaristic corkscrew beard. I collect the coins of the soldier with the scraggly beard and not so much the potentate with the curls. The early period saw several mints in operation using types either a bit unusual or copied directly from earlier coins (sometimes including even the inappropriate dates of the original). We have learned a great deal about the coins of the early years (193-196 AD) in the time I have been interested in them. When I started, I bought branch mint coins described as barbarous or questionably authentic by uninformed dealers and met more than one expert dealer who advised the things were not worth collecting. That is why I prefer the early and the Eastern: They are not boring. This board allows 5 photos per post so I'll show 5 that span the times of Septimius Severus, my favorite emperor. 193 Rome - The legionary coins name the legions that supported Septimius from the start. This is legion XXII PRI from northern Germany which is the rarest of the bunch. I have seen six or eight of them but only one had full reverse legends. I wish I have bought that one. Alexandria mint but the reverse copies a coin of Pertinax directly. There are more common coins of this mint easily separated once you get accustomed to the style. The common Eastern mint is called 'Emesa' but where it was located is a topic of discussion. After some rare early variations they settled down on an obverse legend ending in COS II. This mint has many varieties, many misspellings and many rarities including a very small number of left facing portraits. The common ones are cheap and easily found. They will be cheaper and easier to find if Martin and I ever send our coins to market. The other Eastern mint is attributed to Laodicea ad Mare (again the splits and locations of the Syrian mints may get revised). Like Emesa, Laodicea has a lot of variation and several coins not easily found. It is my least favorite Eastern mint and was the last one to close when Septimius had finished with business in the East. Finally, the corkscrew beard of later Rome is found on many boring types I can afford and a few really nice rarities that I can't. I wish I could show you the ones with scenes from the arena, Medusa head or architectural types but the market attaches high prices to these while allowing rarities from the early and East to slip by into my collection every so often. The one shown here is very common. Each of these five could be subdivided with five variations I'd expect a Septimius collection to include. Remember also that Septimius also issued many, many coins in the names of his wife and family making his coins what I considered worth my special attention over my collecting life. It would not be hard to develop a collection of a thousand different coins (I said 'not hard' but I did not say 'not expensive').
