I received this coin earlier this week. Although it is scratched and the
flan is too small causing large chunks of the
legend to be off, I
still find it very very special:
Sestertius of
Commodus (16,57g, Ø 30mm, 7h) minted AD 190,
Rome.
Obverse: M COMMOD
ANT P FE-LIX
AVG [
BRIT P P], laureate
head right
Reverse: COLLANCO[M
PM TR P XV
IMP VIII] (around), [C]OS VI / [S C] (
in ex.),
Commodus, veiled, as priest, ploughing right with two oxen.
RIC 560;
Cohen 39(60fr.);
BMC 643
The traditional explanation of the
reverse legend COL L AN COM P M TR P XV
IMP VIII COS VI S C can be found in the
Dictionary of Roman Coins (
NumisWiki). The letters COL together with the depiction of the ritual ploughing of the furrow marking out a new foundation, refer to establishing a colony (
COLonia). COL is followed by the name of the colony in this case: LANCOM, where evidently COM stands for COMmodiana. The critical
part is formed by the three letters LAN.
The explanation in mentioned Dictionary is based on
Eckhel (1796), reading the
legend abbreviated COL.L.AN.COM, referring to the refounding of
Rome under its new name:
COLonia Lucia ANtoniniana COMmodiana.
Cohen follows this, as well as
RIC and BM although they substitute ANtoniniana by
ANnia.
Curtis Clay noted elsewhere on this
Forum discussion board, that Chantraine in 1971, following a suggestion of Renier in 1872, proposed an alternative explanation expanding the
legend COL·LAN·COM to
COLonia LANuvina COMmodiana. The coin no longer refers to the refounding of
Rome but to that of Lanuvium, the place of birth of
Commodus, elevating it from municipium to the rank of colony.
Remains the question why
Eckhel, who himself noted that the
praenomen of Lucia given to
Rome was strange at a time when
Commodus used that of
Marcus, insisted expanding the
legend as he did, unless he saw the
legend actually abbreviated like that on a specimen. Here, I did find a
sestertius which, even though it has
part of the
legend off the
flan, shows dots between parts of the
legend: COL·L·AN... The first dot can clearly be seen. Perhaps the condition of this specimen is not
good enough to ascertain that there is also a second dot after the second L but it appears to be so. In any case, this specimen shows that a die existed with dots indicating how the
abbreviations on the
reverse should be read. Suffice to find a picture of another surviving
sestertius from that die...
Unfortunately, as far as I know, Eckhel's publication does not have any plates of the coins described. Does anyone know where more
sestertii of this
type could be found ? Are there more musea like the British Museum making their
collection accessible to the general public ?
I attach photos kindly provided by the British Museum of the two
sestertii in their
collection. Both appear, as far as I can see, to be from different
reverse dies and without abbreviation dots in the
reverse legend.
