I recently received this Vespasian denarius in a small group lot. A have a question about the reverse, which shows Pax seated holding an olive branch. In the reverse legend, PON MAX TR P COS VI, there is clearly a line over the VI. I did a quick ACSearch and a CNG search, and all of these Pax reverses legends that end in COS VI or VII have a line over the number. Does anyone know why there is a line there? It doesn't appear to be a design element. My coin: Other examples: https://cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=353290 https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=1645337 https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=1822247
The line is an orthographic convention to let the Roman reader know it was to be taken as a number, not a letter of a word -- i.e. that it was COS 6, not cosui
Here's a related coin with what might have been taken for a number but is intended as a letter: Note the reverse inscription reads COSITERTRPOT. Note there is no bar over the I after COS. That's because it's not a number, but a letter, the first letter of the abbreviation ITER. COS ITER is short for consul iterum, meaning "consul again" (a second time). Alternatively, the inscription might have been written COSIITRPOT with a bar over the II to indicate the number 2.
Interesting. I'd never seen this before. Thank you for the information. Does it appear on coins of other emperors?
