Whilst stating that I am not actively collecting Rome mint issues of Septimius Severus I do seem to be adding Legionary denarii as I find them. Septimius Severus denarius Obv:– IMP CAE L SEP SEV PERT AVG, Laureate head right Rev:– LEG III IT-AL, TR P COS in exergue, legionary eagle between two standards. Capricorns on standards. Minted in Rome. A.D. 193 Reference:– BMCRE 10, RIC 7. RSC 262 This one has lots of wear and seems to come from worn dies. What struck me was that the portrait seems quite Antonine in nature (or is it just my eyes). It was being mis-sold as the more common XIIII GEM M V but I suspect that this was laziness by the dealer. Martin
One of the big appeals to my eye offered by the first issues of Septimius from Rome is the huge variation in portraits used before the mint settled down and decided what he really looked like. On another thread I showed several and was told they were all the same. These are not coins for people who want only one Septimius. The Reka Devnia hoard numbers say that the more common XIIII GEM M V make up half of the legionary coins with the rest not at all equally divided between the others. LEG III ITAL is on the scarce side of average. Yours has something going on on the reverse (clash, overstrike --- what?). Mine is below. Our portraits are hardly similar at all. The rest of my set is on my series of six pages. http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/legions.html but I even have a separate page on LEG III: http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/feac44leg.html
Nice catch, Martin! Good for you that you took the time to read the legend while others did not. As you say, quite bit scarcer that Legio Gemmina Martia Victoria. In my experience many of Severus' legionary denarii suffer from poor strikes, worn dies, or tight planchets. All of mine certainly do. This is my example of Legio Italica. Unfortunately I am unable to discern whether the legend reads Legio I or III.
Are you ruling out LEG II ITAL? You need to find a reverse die match to know. Unfortunately the style standards used on the various legions' coins was not consistent so you need the die match. There are many coins that are not IDed with certainty otherwise. I have nothing against part legend coins but I really want the part that is missing to be unimportant with the significant parts for ID nice and clear. For example, I have seen only two full legend examples of the rare LEG XXII PRI and both of them were from the same die (I am aware of three reverse dies for these). I do not own one, yet. Most are IDed certainly by the RI at far right end of the reverse and on a rare coin we might be well advised to take what we can find. A complete set of Legionaries comprised of only full legend coins will take a while to assemble.
Mine is a modest example of by far the most common of these, LEG XIIII GEM M V. For a relative rarity comparison, here's a list of the 16 recorded varieties (of the Rome mint) along with the total number of specimens found in 57 silver hoards (including Reka Devnia and Shapwick Villa): LEG I ADIVT : 6 LEG I ITAL : 5 LEG I MIN : 1 LEG II ADIVT : 5 LEG II ITAL : 9 LEG III ITAL : 7 LEG IIII : 4 LEG V MAC : 9 LEG VII CL : 4 LEG VIII AVG : 9 LEG XI CL : 3 LEG XIII GEM : 5 LEG XIIII GEM M V : 50 LEG XXII : 6 LEG XXII PRI : 0 LEG XXX VLP (or VL) : 2 Info compiled from the Severan Database Project.
Thanks a lot guys I was blissfully unaware that ..... ...Now I have a itch to go after them. I wonder if @Bing is aware of this Terrific coins everyone!!!!
Talk about "blissfully unaware"... I was not aware of the Severan Database Project. I do find that list interesting. I can only assume they only look in academic places but the proportions seems about right. I do believe that XXII PRI, XXX VLP and I MIN are the most scarce. I relatively recently added I MIN to that list not realizing I was lucky to have the one I do. I had searched for my PRI's and XXX coins so the number I have is higher than makes sense by random statistics. I do not believe XI CL is as rare as they suggest but I have not made a serious study. I'll have to search their site. I MIN XXIIPRI (my first is coin 35 in my catalog - we have been together for a long time and it does not make fun of my faults either) XXXVLP
That is a good thought. Thank you. I did a comparison based on samples I found on acsearch, but was unable to find a die match.
