As most of you are no doubt aware I collect the eastern denarii of Septimius Severus. I have been sharing a few of my "Emesa" mint coins recentle as I haven't managed to add any "Laodicea" coins for a while. Until now that is. This week I have managed to add two new examples. Septimius Severus denarius Obv:– L SEPT SEV PE-RET AVG IMP II, Laureate head right Rev:– FORT R-D-EVC, Fortuna seated left holding rudder and cornucopiae Minted in Laodicea-ad-Mare. A.D. 194 Reference:– BMC W Page 108 * var (citing Cohen 168 though Cohen 168 is PERT). RIC 451 var (451 listed for PERT and noted for PERET (RD)). RSC 168 var (PERET for PERT) This one is sadly held in one of those horrible NGC tombs but I followed the primary rule, buy the coin not the slab with this one. I now have to decide whether to release this ancient from the tomb and how. Nothing really special about the second coin but I am glad to give it a home. Septimius Severus denarius Obv:– L SEPT SEV PERT AVG IMP VIII, laureate head right Rev:– LIBER AVG, Liberalitas standing left, holding abacus in right hand, cornucopiae in left Minted in Laodicea-ad-Mare. A.D. 196-197 Reference:– BMCRE 445. RIC 481. RSC 288 Martin
The variations of Fortuna from Laodicea seem endless. I have many fewer than Martin but find some interesting. For some reason I always bought more of the Emesa coins. Normal IMP II with the Hilaritas version Fortuna One I of IMP II relocated to other side of bust point and reverse is spelled RDEVC. PERT is PERET. Now both I's are over there; Fortuna sits with rudder but still uses RDEVC. PERT is PERET. Standing, we lose the D altogether leaving REVC. This is an IMPVIII coin. There are no IMPVI coins but some dies lost the extra I's to the other side of the bust and off flan. I have this die with a non-Fortuna reverse with all the I's but only Fortunas get shown here. The reverse is normal. The obverse splits off only one of the final I's but the odd part is SEV has become SEVER. A bit crowded but the entire VIII is forced in the space. The reverse figure traded her rudder for a second cornucopia. I have no idea how many minor variations of these things there are. There once was 'discussion' on the existence of the IMP date numerals but I believe all concerned now accept that there are only IMP II and IMPVIII coins. The rest are misreadings based on separated one or two final strokes. The last two coins are later and have the broad flans that we find more often on the even later 'New Style' Laodicea coins. In general I start the term 'New Style' in the middle of IMP VIII when the mint started using a different set of reverses matching those from Rome rather that the Old Style types as seen on the Emesa coins. To me the big question is how many mints were are dealing with here starting with the Emesa obverses ending in AVG and progressing through the end of New Style Laodicea which has SEVERVS PIVS AVG obverses.
Doug has given a masterclass explanation on these IMP II and IMP VIII old style coins. The series have not been well studied and thus we have no idea of the number of variations out there. As Doug suggests the big question are:- Is there any link between the AVG, AVG COS... series and the IMP II, old style IMP VIII series? We currently assume that the old style IMP VIII is from the same mint as the new style IMP VIII but we really have no idea. The style changes quite dramatically. I don't focus on "new style" "Laodicea" but have accumulated several over the years. As Doug has illustrated, the IMP II series comes with obverse legend variations of PERT, PERET and PERTE. PERTE example below:- Here are some slightly more unusual seated Fortuna variations:- PERT .. IMP II, FORT RDEVC, Fortuna, seated left, holding cornucopia and sceptre PERTE... IMP II, FORT R AVG, Fortuna (Hilaritas), standing front, head left, holding long palm and cornucopiae PERET...IMP II, Rev:– FORT REDVC, Fortuna (Pax) seated left holding branch and cornucopia I hadn't seen this reverse type on the IMP series before A non Fortuna oddity. PERE... IMP II, SAECVL FELIC, Crescent and seven stars PERE being likely an engraving error
Another interesting addition. Let that poor guy out Have many variations have either of you personally found from Laodicea ?
