The three variants of this
sestertius previously known were as follows:
1. Bare-headed, draped,
cuirassed bust r., seen from behind, otherwise like the
CNG piece. One specimen known:
Niggeler Sale, 1967, lot 1409, from an unillustrated lot of three coins in the Platt Hall Sale of 1950.
2. Bare-headed
bust r. with fold of cloak on front shoulder and behind neck; the
rev. die is the same as that of the new
CNG piece. Two specimens known, both in
Vienna; an EF example from the Bachofen von Echt
Collection acquired c. 1905, and a
fine but altered specimen from the Tiepolo
Collection, which was put together in
Venice c. 1700, published in 1736, and purchased by
Vienna c. 1820.
A third specimen of this variant in
Paris is merely an old
cast of Vienna's EF Bachofen von Echt piece.
Cohen, in
his first edition, described the
bust type of this coin as bare-headed
bust r. with
paludamentum, misleading
Feuardent, in Cohen's second edition, to edit to" bare-headed, draped
bust r." To avoid confusion
Cohen should have written "with fold of
paludamentum on front shoulder and behind neck"; and
Feuardent, before changing to "draped", should have checked the piece itself in the
Paris trays!
3. Bare-headed
bust r. with fold of
aegis on front shoulder and behind neck; two changes on the
reverse, solid rather than tripod
altar and
S - C in
field rather than in
exergue. Three specimens known, all from the same die pair:
BMC 839, pl. 50.8 (wrongly saying drapery rather than
aegis on shoulders) and two specimens in sale catalogues of c. 1910-1930.
So in total, including the
CNG coin, seven specimens of this
sestertius are now known, coming from four
obverse and three
reverse dies. For a middle-period
sestertius, that would have to be called comparatively common: most middle-period
sestertii come from just one pair of dies, and quite a few
types are known in only one or two specimens.
Contrast these numbers, however, with those of Geta's commonest
sestertius as
Augustus, with a similar
reverse type of
Caracalla and
Geta sacrificing but with a flute player and slain
bull added behind the
altar, struck just a year later, but after the resumption of normal
sestertius production: 105 specimens from 45
rev. dies were known to me about thirty years ago;
CoinArchives Pro contains 31 specimens, a couple of which may be just duplicate appearances of the same pieces.
In the light of these figures, it must be said that
Cohen displayed a lamentable unfamiliarity with the
sestertius coinage of Septimius' reign, when he priced Geta's middle-period
CONCORDIA AVGVSTORVM sestertius at a mere 30 francs, but the common sacrifice
sestertius of
Geta as
Augustus at 50 francs! And this old mistake of Cohen's apparently
still influenced the pricing of the same coins in Sear's new
Roman Coins and Their Values: the middle-period
sestertius of
Geta Caesar, no. 7212, $650 in VF; the common similar coin of
Geta as
Augustus, no. 7264, $1000 in VF!
