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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;seth77, post: 4870343, member: 56653&quot;]This one was presented from a Middle European collection as a regular Severus Alexander Augustus:</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1176048[/ATTACH]</p><p><font size="3">AE23mm 6.18g orichalcum (brass) assaria multiple, minted at Nicaea, ca. 221-222.</font></p><p><font size="3">Μ˙ ΑΥ˙Ρ˙ ΑΛЄΞΑΝΔΡΟϹ ΚAI; bare-headed draped and cuirassed bust right, seen from back</font></p><p><font size="3">NI - KA - IE - <u>ON</u>; three legionary standards</font></p><p><font size="3">cf. RPC VI <a href="https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/6/3096" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/6/3096" rel="nofollow">3096</a> (temporary), cf. RecGen 580a</font></p><p><br /></p><p><b>Notes:</b> This variation is not recorded in the regular references but the general type is well known. Similar spec <a href="http://wildwinds.com/coins/ric/severus_alexander/_nicaea_RecGen_580a_var.jpg" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://wildwinds.com/coins/ric/severus_alexander/_nicaea_RecGen_580a_var.jpg" rel="nofollow">here</a>.</p><p><br /></p><p>The obverse die was also used for different reverse types, as seen <a href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=7029560" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=7029560" rel="nofollow">here</a> and <a href="https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/6/3101" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/6/3101" rel="nofollow">here</a>. The coinage for Alexander as Caesar is usually scarce to rare and dies used for different types with the same obverse are regular within colonial coinage.</p><p><br /></p><p>The alloy used is also interesting, as orichalcum is evocative of imperial sestertii, possibly this issue was tariffed at 4 colonial assaria, the equivalent in official terms to the imperial sestertius of four asi. The assaria from Nicaea in Bithynia was used extensively, as finds confirm, as currency in Moesia Superior and in Dacia Traiana during the 3rd century, as limes provinces were not very well provided with Imperial coinage. Colonial assaria such as this specimen were of paramount importance to the local economy on the Roman Danube, which is probably how this specimen ended up in a Middle European collection, possibly a find from Pannonia or Raetia or Moesia Superior.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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