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Septimius Severus. AD 193-211. AR Denarius (19mm, 2.62 g, 12h). ‘Old style’. Laodicea ad Mare mint. Struck AD 194. L SEPT SEV P ERET AVG IMP I I, laureate head right / IOVI VI CTORI, Jupiter seated left, holding Victory and scepter. RIC IV 441B = BMCRE p. 106, f = RSC 249a = Sir John Evans, “A Hoard of Roman Coins,” NC 1898, p. 151 and pl. XII, 18 cor441r. (obv. legend); BMCRE 431 var. (distribution of legends); RSC 249b; CNG 91, lot 920. Toned, some iridescence and underlying luster, granular surfaces. Good VF. Very rare.
From the I.L. Collection.
This issue has been categorized with a small group that had been thought to have an obverse legend ending in IMP I, which numismatists have long thought to be an engraver’s error, and likely were issues with IMP II where the final I was left off for various reasons. The first published example of this type was found in a hoard reported by Sir John Evans in the 1898 Numismatic Chronicle. In that report, he noted the obverse legend as: L SEPT SEV PERT AVG IMP I. This was clearly in error, as the illustration of that coin shows PERET, and there is a second I below the bust. On some examples, as here and on the 1898 hoard coin, the engraver apparently ran out of room before the bust, and therefore placed the second I below the truncation, the only other place he could naturally place it. The problem of identifying the error has also been exacerbated by the fact that both RIC and BMCRE cite two different incorrect page numbers for the hoard coin in the 1898 publication. We may now conclude that there are no IOVI VICTORI types that have an obverse legend that ends with the odd IMP I.
Closing Date and Time: 19 June 2024 at 13:22:40 ET.
All winning bids are subject to a 20% buyer’s fee.
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