The demise of Septimius Severus in York in February 211 was before the anticipated return to Rome with Caracalla and Geta, his two sons. This return was foretold on the bronze coinage of all three of them, if the FORT(una) RED(ux) reverse is interpreted correctly. Geta, 209-212, AE As, FORT RED TRP III COS II SC Rather than transport a corpse back to the eternal city the likelihood is that he was cremated locally. There is, in Acomb/Holgate, a spot known as Severus Hill. It is in the V between Poppleton Road and York Road and can be spotted by the water tower on top.  There was 19th cen ..read more

Septimius Severus, sestertius, ADVENTVI AVG FELICISSIMO AVG SC (RIC 719c) Here is a sestertius of Septimius Severus with IMP VIII at the end of the obverse legend (dated by RIC to AD 196). With the ADVENTVI AVG FELICISSIMO SC reverse (RIC 719c) I had always assumed it marked the return to Rome after the Eastern campaign, as indicated by the "Liberalities" table on page 72 of RIC (see below). This was also the explanation of Clive Foss in Roman Historical Coins (1990). Curtis Clay, however, put me right. Liberalities from RIC IV, page 72 In his unpublished 1972 thesis he established that the ..read more

Reading (again) Cathy King’s paper on denarii and quinarii in the late third century in the 1978 Sutherland festschrift she observes that from the reign of Valerian to the end of the century their issue was probably restricted to special occasions with the exception of the denarii of Aurelian and Severina. It is quite noticeable that in King’s 2007 corpus of Roman quinarii there is an apparent hiatus in their issue after Claudius II and their issue resumed under Tacitus. Although not the sole mint for denarii during the reign of Aurelian the Rome mint is the most prolific, particularly after ..read more

A few years ago, after reading Gitler and Ponting's monograph on chemical analyses of Severan denarii, I began to suspect that the eastern attributed coin attributions weren't wholly correct. They identified that some of the coins assigned to Laodicea had a composition closer to the Rome mint issues. Reading Bland's work on the Antioch coins of Gordian III, where he summarises the previous output of the Antioch mint, he accepts that Butcher is probably correct in his proposed reattribution of location. RIC 422 "Emisa" = Antioch Both RIC and BMC assign a large series of coins of Severus to Eme ..read more

Whilst reconciling old coin tickets I have for coins from the Blackmoor hoard sales with the two sale catalogues (both referenced in the catalogues section of the bibliography page on this website) I realised that I have the type specimen for Webb’s 1933 RIC listing of RIC 914. My coin, described as IMP CARAVSIVS PF A, radiate, draped and cuirassed bust right, PAX AVG, Pax (or Fides?) standing left with two standards has a ticket that notes it was part of lot 285 in the Christie’s 1975 sale. The lot is described as 20 Pax coins with various other attributes (RIC 907ff). Looking at the RIC ..read more

I recently picked up a small pamphlet or off-print, the source of which is unclear that relates to a third century coin find from Roman Britain. It details the gift of some 148 coins from a hoard from July 1879 to the Brighton Free Library and Museum by the Duke of Devonshire. The find spot is noted as near Eastbourne in Sussex and, given the year and detailed listing I thought it should be easy to track down some further details. A quick search of Robertson’s Inventory of Romano-British Coin Hoards (IRBCH). Sure enough it didn’t take that much looking up.  Entry number 728 identifies it ..read more

In 2012 I acquired two Roman sextantes that clearly did not fit into the arrangement of Crawford in his 1974 work Roman Republican Coinage (Cr). At approximately 16 mm in diameter and around 1.8 grammes they were smaller and lighter than any comparable material, although many authors subsumed them under the description of Cr. 56/6. At the time I postulated whether they might be a local imitative type. I was corrected and told that these were issues from the time of the Second Punic War, frequently found overstruck on other types, and not referenced in the standard sources. Recently the pieces ..read more

In March 2000 the catalogue for CNG sale 53 arrived. Lots 1434 and 1435 were two curious, small, uniface square AE pieces with a galley/rowing boat with two occupants depicted on one side with the legend MPV above. They were identified as 1st century tesserae and, as chance would have it, around the same time I came the temporary custodian of another example of the same type. I quickly sold it on but was left with a feeling more than a little regret. It is a coincidence that the Roman small rowed vessel probably depicted on the tokens is called a tesseraria(e) and is not linked to the name us ..read more

In 2005 Koray Konuk, the authority on Cilician coinage, identified a new location for the production of silver coin, Latmos. Latmos is named after the mountain it resides under, the peaks known today as the Besparmak mountains. Indeed, the geographer Strabo (63BC - 24AD) actually calls the city Heraclea under Latmos, although that is apparently a relocation approximately 1km to the west of the original Latmos sometime after being conquered by Mausollos in the 4th century BC. During the 5th century BC it was part of the Delian League. Konuk initially published a corpus of five coins, in three ..read more

We are always encouraged to specialise in numismatic collection and study. That can, however, lead to a blinkered approach in interpretation, albeit unintentional. Durotriges geometric quarter stater I will cite one particular example, the silver quarter staters of the Durotriges known as the “geometric type” (Mack 319, Van Ardsell 1242/29, Spink 368). An earlier similar type of quarter stater is also known in gold. The reverse is described as zigzag pattern in the Spink catalogue, whilst the obverse is a crescent design. The explanation of the obverse design has been elaborated on by some wr ..read more