72, Lot: 105. Estimate $100. Sold for $82. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CARACALLA. 198-217 AD. AR Denarius (19mm, 2.69 gm). Uncertain Eastern mint. Struck after 208 AD. Laureate head right, seen from behind / BONO EVENTO COS III, Bonus Eventus standing left, holding patera over lighted and garlanded altar, and grain ears. Cf. RIC IV 33 (BONVS EVENTVS); cf. BMCRE pg. 185, 159 (same): cf. RSC 19 (same). VF.

While this type was known to have been minted in Rome, the fabric and style suggest an eastern origin. The specific mint at which this denarius was struck, however, is open to speculation. Several varieties of the reverse legend are known; this is the only example in the dative, The correct legend, BONO EVENTVS has been replaced by EVENTO and implies a die-cutter with a very basic knowledge of Latin. During the Severan period, mint strictures were loosened in the East, allowing local moneyers, who would earlier have been considered counterfeiters, to take up the slack for the limited material coming from official mints.