Hi!
Below you can see two early
denarii of
Marcus Aurelius that have a story to tell. The first one was lying around for long enough - I kept it as it seemed to have a
typo on the
reverse legend - the last letter 'P' was missing in the intended
legend FEL TEMP...So, it is
FEL TEM, but not
FEL TEMP as it should be in reality. So, I kept it as just another funny coin.
But recently I spotted another one of the same
type from different
obverse and
reverse dies, and having the same shortened
FEL TEM and missing P on the
reverse - it is one on the right below.
This time I checked the bronzes in BM, and learned that BM possesses
dupondius and
sestertius from the same TR P XV/Felicitas issue with the same missing P on the
reverse!!!
NB!
RIC and
RSC listed only the full
FEL TEMP variants for both
denarii and bronzes/RIC, without mentioning the shortened variants without P.
So, it is not the die cutter's mistake as I thought in the beginning! This short
FEL TEM
legend could be
applied on purpose, not by mistake, as
FEL TEM was featured on
denarius,
dupondius and
sestertius. As well as I got two different variants of this
type with
bare head and laur
head (though the same
style of drapery on far shoulder and behind) - pics are below. I doubt the mistake could be repeated so many times. Unless it was all done by only one
officina with a drunk
head of copy
...all other officinas seemed to
mint regular
FEL TEMP.
Generally, this
denarius type TR P XV with
Felicitas on
reverse is very very
scarce - only few of each
bust variants were recorded by RD. All those ones I was able to find in internet, all
had the full
legend FEL TEMP.
RIC 13 (
FEL TEMP -full
legend), cites single specimen R.it 1899 p 453. I suppose it could be misread, and it could be short
FEL TEM in reality, as my coin.
Ob.
IMP CAES M AVREL ANTONINVS
AVG - (1) laur
head right (2) bare
bust right, both with drapery on far shoulder
Rev. FEL TEM TR P XV
COS III -
Felicitas standing left
RIC 13 (
var),
RSC 197 (
var)
(1) 2,8 g - 18mm - 180'
(2) 3,2 g - 18mm - 180'
I would much appreciate your comments - do you agree this
reverse legend was intended, not a mistake?
Thank you for you time! - I mean for the time while reading my blah-blah:)))
Cheers,
Z.