Liberalitas scene on Severus Alexander sestertius otd

[Diederik]

I rarely buy any coins from my local dealer, as he 'never' has anything really interesting, but yesterday I found this nice sestertius, weighing 17.45 grams.
IMP SEV ALE-XANDER AVG laureate bust (draped?) right. /
LIBERALITAS AVGVSTI IIII S-C in ex. Severus Alexander seated left on curule chair set on daïs, extending hand to individual standing left, mounting stairs to receive tessera; Liberalitas standing facing before, holding abacus; two attendants standing left behind. RIC IV 571
It is not in splendid condition, but it seems to be rather rare, as I don't find a lot of comparable pieces (except for Coinarchives: 1x)

Frans

[mix_val]

Hi Frans

It's rare according to CNG which sold one in 2004.  I bid and lost!   
Interesting story behind the coin as follows

From the Garth R. Drewry Collection. Ex Knobloch Collection (Stack's, 1-3 May 1980), lot 1066.

According to the original owner, this coin came from a collection found during a reorganization of Glamis Castle, Scotland, and was apparently assembled by an unknown collector in the eighteenth century, likely before 1717. Glamis is the ancestral home of the Bowes-Lyons family; Elizabeth Bowes-Lyons was the wife of George VI of Great Britain, and mother of Elizabeth II. Glamis was also the setting for the murder of Duncan in Shakespeare's Macbeth.

I have a specimen of this coin in my collection  that's not quite as good as the CNG example below

Bob

[curtislclay]

This platform-scene sestertius for Alexander's fourth largesse in 229 is certainly rare, but on the other hand it will probably be obtainable if you have patience.

BM 564-6 has three specimens, the last with only one attendant rather than two standing behind the emperor on the platform.  Cohen 139 cites Paris.

One spec. in CoinArchives, the Knobloch piece shown above by mix_val.  Berk photofile includes that same specimen, plus two others.  I had a specimen in my first collection, mix_val has one, Frans now has one.  In sum, this is a coin that you can expect to find in every larger collection of sestertii of Severus Alexander.

The other largesse-scene sestertii of Alexander's reign are rarer.  In ascending order of rarity:

LIBERALITAS AVGVSTI, 222.  Cohen 114 cites Paris.  BMC 9 (pl. I) has a tooled specimen, obtained from Christie's Earl Fitzwilliam Sale of 1949; now they have a nicer one too, from my first collection.  One in Berk photofile, one in CoinArchives (illustrated below).

LIBERALITAS AVGVSTI V, 232.  Cohen 145 cites Paris; BMC 948* cites that Paris specimen.  I acquired one several years ago from Ritter that will hopefully end up in BM.  One poor spec. in CoinArchives, illustrated below, which hasn't sold in two successive Elsen auctions this year.  None in Berk photofile.

LIBERALITAS AVGVSTI II, 224.  Only one example known to me, unique and unpublished in Vienna.  The II on rev. is off flan, and the coin has accordingly been placed in the trays as LIBERALITAS AVGVSTI of 222.  However, I noted an obv. die link to a sestertius dated TR P III=224, I think BM 208*, pl. 8, rev. Temple with forecourt, IOVI VLTORI P M TR P III COS P P.  The same obv. die can hardly already have been in use two years earlier, and anyway the features of the portrait are clearly more mature than one sees in 222, which is what motivated me to look for a die link in the first place.  A largesse-scene sestertius for this liberalitas is perfectly plausible, since there is certainly a corresponding large bronze medallion with largesse scene, BM 210*.

LIB AVG III PONTIF MAX TR P V COS II P P, 226.  No largesse-scene sestertius yet known, though it wouldn't be very surprising if one turned up, since the type is known on medallic asses (without S C), BM 321 and 321 note.

As to the pedigree of the specimen mix_val shows: I think the coin must have come from the Glendining Sale, 4 July 1974, "Glamis Castle Collection, apparently originated before 1714." 

That is a sale that I myself viewed, and made plaster casts of some coins for my research; I think I may even have bought a lot or two for my collection.  I hadn't known, or had forgotten, that Glamis Castle was the ancestral home of Elizabeth II's mother, whose long life lasted from 1900 to 2002.

[Diederik]

Curtis and Bob, thanks for your replies.
Curtis, you are a fountain of information and this board would not have the quality it has, without you!


Frans

[mix_val]

I'm in agreement with Frans.  Great info from Curtis! 
I'm compelled to show my platform liberalitas Sestertius coins.   Still need a decent V for my collection.  Note that my IIII is undraped

[curtislclay]

Frans,

Thanks for the compliment!

One minor correction to your description of the type: the "abacus" or "tessera" is nothing of the sort, but instead what I call a "coin counter", a rectangular board on a handle with a specific number of shallow, coin-sized depressions, which could be dipped into the chest of coins and shaken until one coin settled into each depression, after which the excess coins were swept away and the board was emptied into the toga of the recipient, allowing both official and recipient to ascertain at a glance that the correct number of coins were changing hands!

This is why dots are often depicted on the board: they represent the depressions for the coins.  You will see that the coin counter is regularly held DIRECTLY OVER the breast of the recipient, who opens his toga to receive the coins that it holds.  On some sestertii of Marcus Aurelius, the individual coins are even shown falling through the air between the coin counter and the recipient's toga fold!  I show below the only such sestertius of Marcus in CoinArchives, where the shower of coins may or may not be depicted, this specimen and image not being clear enough.

The correct description of this handy instrument was first presented in an article about forty years ago, after van Berchem had pointed the way and almost discovered the solution in his illuminating book of 1939 on imperial distributions of grain and money (in French).  

This discovery not only solved an old riddle of type interpretation, but also shows us that largesses of the early and middle empire must normally have been distributed in denarii.  We know from the literary sources that largesses were normally of between 75 and 200 denarii per recipient.  If paid in gold, that would be between three and eight aurei per recipient, a number too small to necessitate a coin counter.  Payment in bronze would have been impossibly cumbersome, since 300 to 800 sestertii would have been between 16.5 and 44 pounds (7.5 and 20 kilograms) of brass per recipient!  Only a distribution of denarii themselves would (a) have been practical and (b) have required the use of just such an instrument.  Just think of the immense increase in speed and accuracy when distributing 100 denarii via two scoops of a coin counter with fifty depressions, versus trying to count out the same 100 coins any other way!

Curtis

[Diederik]

Wonderful information and important as well!
I suggest this thread be moved to 'Roman Coins'


Thanks a lot!


Frans

[curtislclay]

As to mix_val's two nice specimens:

LIBERALITAS AVGVSTI:  same rev. die as the CoinArchives specimen that I show above, tending to confirm the rarity.

As far as I have seen the bust on these sestertii, and on the Liberalitas-standing sestertii of 222 which are just as rare or rarer, is always "seen from the back".  Maybe "seen from back" is the earliest sestertius obv. type of Alexander's reign, followed by "seen from front", which is also quite common on his sestertii of 222 (P M TR P COS P P).

LIBERALITAS AVGVSTI IIII:  The obv. type with fold of cloak on front shoulder and behind neck seems to be normal: so on all three BM specimens, on the three in Berk photofile, and (maybe) on Frans' shown above.

Cohen 139 doesn't mention drapery folds on the Paris specimen, but one has to wonder whether that is accurate or just an oversight. 

That is one reason I am so glad that Paris has now undertaken to publish its collection of Roman coins, with images of virtually every specimen: Cohen's important work is based primarily on the Paris collection, so the publication of that collection is going to clear up lots of small questions that arise from Cohen's descriptions!

Actually Cohen 139 says "His laureate head or bust right", asserting that he had seen both varieties, though not guaranteeing that both are actually in the Paris collection.

I'm looking forward to seeing mix_val's entire collection of bronzes of Alexander and Mamaea, when he has time to make and post the images, now that he has shown us his excellent collection of denarii!

[Roma_Orbis]

Very interesting! Here is an even more explicit scene with a counting board, from a Nero Sestertius reverse:
http://www.coinarchives.com/a/lotviewer.php?LotID=67901&AucID=73&Lot=874
It is one of the few types where a figure, not Liberalitas, is holding a coin counting board.

Jérôme

[curtislclay]

Yes, in this type of Nero it is particularly clear that the coin counter must be delivering something (coins), that the citizen opens his toga to receive.

Actually, contrary to some misdescriptions in catalogues, the figure wielding the coin counter in largesse-scene types on coins is ALWAYS an official, not Liberalitas, under Nero, Titus as Caesar, Nerva, Trajan, and for Hadrian's first and third largesses (BMC III, pl. 77.10, 52.6-7, and 78.12 for Hadrian).

First appearance of Liberalitas in the scene, but emptying a cornucopia rather than holding the coin counter: I think Hadrian, fourth and seventh largesses, BMC pl. 82.2 and 88.8.

A. Pius started again at Go and completed the game:

LIBERALITAS AVG of 139, official with coin counter, BMC pl. 41.10 (misattributed in the text).

LIBERALITAS AVG II of c. 140: Liberalitas emptying cornucopia, BM pl. 5.12.

LIBERALITAS AVG III of c. 143: first appearance of Liberalitas on the platform holding a coin counter, BM pl. 5.13-14, specimen from CoinArchives illustrated below.  Note that Liberalitas wears drapery covering her legs, has a feminine hairdo, and above all carries a cornucopia in addition to the coin counter, distinguishing her unmistakably from the official!

LIBERALITAS IIII, V, VII, VIIII of 145-161: always Liberalitas with coin counter, BM pl. 40.16, 41.3, 47.5, and Strack pl. XV, 1202.

Marcus Aurelius reverted to the OFFICIAL holding coin counter for his

first largesse of 161, BM pl. 53.15, 71.2, and 71.6 (L. Verus),

third largesse of 165, illustrated above.

I think this was the last appearance of the official, however.  Thereafter his role was always taken over by Liberalitas, so for the rest of Marcus' reign:

fourth largesse of 167, BM pl. 80.5

sixth largesse of 175, BM pl. 66.9 and 84.14 (both Commodus Caesar)

seventh largesse of 177, BM pl. 87.8 and 88.8 (Commodus).

The type of Liberalitas standing alone, holding coin counter and cornucopia, appeared for the first time, I think, for Hadrian's sixth largesse of c. 131, BM pl. 60.2 and 88.7.  That was about a dozen years before she was also depicted in the platform scene holding the coin counter, for Pius' third largesse of c. 143.