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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 3202454, member: 19463&quot;]I&#039;l play.&nbsp; Random.org said you need to see my coin #1359 which dates to the period when almost everything I was buying was a Septimius Severus denarius.&nbsp; This one was one of 18 coins I bought one day in March 1997 at a Baltimore coin show from Jonathan Kern.&nbsp; It was one of three that day with the reverse VICTOR SEVER AVG and, quite honestly the least of the three.&nbsp; Why did I buy three of the same reverse?</p><p>[ATTACH=full]829110[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>At that time I was laboring under the misconception that coins of this reverse were rare.&nbsp; Each of the three had a different minor variation.&nbsp; The chances that random.org will ever pull the other two are pretty slim so you won&#039;t get to see them unless you go to my web pages on the subject.&nbsp; The chances that I will be buying more coins with this reverse are pretty slim, too, since they have turned out to be not all that special.&nbsp; They are not among the really common Emesa mint reverses but they are not as rare as I thought back then.&nbsp; If I were to see this coin today offered for what I paid then, would I buy it?&nbsp; Good question. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>VICTOR SEVER AVG coins replaced the much, much more rare VICTOR IVST AVG reverses which the mint had copied from the issues of Pescennius Niger whose name often included Iustus (&#039;the just&#039;).&nbsp; The mint at Emesa (or wherever it was) copied many of the reverse types of Pescennius&#039; Antioch mint.&nbsp; I suspect this change followed orders from Septimius to get the offensive name Iustus off of his coins.&nbsp; I always wondered if someone at the mint suffered from making this mistake.&nbsp; &#039;SEVER&#039; (the severe) was taken from Septimius&#039; name and may not have played all that well with the emperor since later Victory types were shortened to VICTOR AVG.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>I really can&#039;t recall why I bought this coin 21 years ago.&nbsp; I usually would have avoided a coin with so much lost legend but it was easy to get carried away when going through Jonathan Kern&#039;s many bags of quite decent coins priced at $xx your pick (mostly priced by grade).&nbsp; This one has a distinctive die break over the TA on obverse right and might well have been the only other coin of that reverse in the bag.&nbsp; The other two were &#039;no brainer&#039; selections.&nbsp; Perhaps I felt the need for one with the &#039;ordinary&#039; legend ending in COSII.&nbsp; Those who want to see the others will find them among the five of this reverse shown on my web pages on this mint.&nbsp; </p><p><a href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/mintsyr4.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/mintsyr4.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/mintsyr4.html</a></p><p><a href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/mintsyr3.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/mintsyr3.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/mintsyr3.html</a></p><p>Compulsive?&nbsp; Looking back, one might say so but there have not been as many of these offered recently as there was back in 1997 so maybe I thought ahead and decided I should get them while they were available???</p><p><br /></p><p>Random.org is an interesting way to pick the coin to be shown here.&nbsp; I do know that this coin would not have been selected otherwise but I still am keeping it and all its kin while I maintain the &#039;specialty interest&#039; in Eastern mint Septimius coins.&nbsp; The coin show that produced this coin was less than a month after I posted the first of my web pages.&nbsp; I became much more of a general collector.&nbsp; I felt compelled to buy and study more different kinds of coins to provide material for my web pages (which became my new compulsion).&nbsp; Perhaps, after all, random.org did pick a reasonable coin to represent my collection. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /><img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /><img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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