Cr 206/1 AR Denarius S Afra

150 BCE Rome mint
o: Helmeted head of Roma right, X behind
r: Victory in biga right, SAFRA below horses, ROMA in exergue
Afrania 1 3.67 gm 19.00 mm
A "controversial" coin, if one is a bit of a pedant. Both Crawford and Sear note that the absence of a period/dot/stop after the "S" must lead to the conclusion that this is not issued by a "Spurius Afranius", but rather someone else. Indeed, Sear, due to his system, repeats the assertion for each of the seven types in this issue, from denarius to uncia, using up roughly a half-page of type, net. However, Sear makes no attempt to identify "S Afra", and Crawford cops out with "Safra" representing an unknown cognomen. I personally find it a bit difficult to hang such an argument on the absence of a dot but disregarding a usually distinct space between S and A. The Afranii were a fairly prolific bunch; one of them may have felt a need to be a bit hip-er than others. Plus, "Safra" does not seem to mean anything in Latin, which would be a bit unusual for a cognomen.
So, which explanation fits best: omission of a dot in a design versus a meaningless cognomen used by an unknown person who is not one of the members of a sound-alike gens that was sometimes of tertiary importance .....?

This coin is in wonderful condition for the type.