Septimius Severus Sacrificing

<— Last coin	---------- What I Like About Ancient Coins ----------	Next coin —>

	Coin Type: Silver denarius of Septimius Severus, 193 CE - 211 CE Mint and Date: "Emesa", 194 CE. Size and Weight: 16mm x 17mm, 2.59g Obverse: IMP CAE L SEP S(-EV PERT AVG COS) II Laureate head right. Reverse: PIETAT AVG Septimius, veiled, draped, standing facing, head left, sacrificing out of a patera in right hand over a tripod left, and holding a roll in left hand at his side. Ref: RCV (2002) 6324; RIC IV 413; BMCRE V p.97, 387 Provenance: del550 (eBay), July 2009. BW Ref: 076 041 142
Click on the picture for a larger scale view of the coin
Note: The green deposits on this coin, and the cracks to the right of the head, suggest that this might be a fourrée, a base metal core plated with silver. This would be very rare for a coin from "Emesa". But I nicked the encrusted edge with a knife and found only silver beneath, so this is a genuine coin (and thus only scarce rather than very rare). The alloy it is made of clearly contains enough copper for a green encrustation to form. The cracks to the right of the head might be a lamination fault.

The content of this page was last updated on 15 July 2009