an unusual Nicopolis ad Istrum

[slokind]

The prize in my lot of 5 coins is not the attached.
The attached is, let me emphasize, nearly 23 mm in diameter and 6.42g.  That is the size of Caracalla's Sleeping Eros (Pick pl. XVI, 4), of one coin for Septimius, no. 1345 (head to r.) with Nemesis and four for Julia Domna with Nemesis plus hers with Sleeping Eros like Caracalla's.  Pick calls it a Zweier, a dyassarion, though it weighs abut the same as Diadumenian's  coins at Marcianopolis, and, with a centering dimple, it is pretty surely brass.
The reverse die of the present coin might be that of Domna's no. 1469, since her 1471 and Septimius's 1345 (his only one of this size) have Nemesis lifting her garment with her right hand, and this coin hasn't.
Septimius's 1345 is a laureate head, to r., BUT THE PRESENT COIN HAS HEAD TO LEFT.  It certainly is Septimius; there are letter traces sufficient for that, and it looks like him.
I need to take a better photo; in raking light I can see the portrait better, but this one is not false to the coin.
N.B. All these Æ21-23 for Septimius and Julia (the Eros coins for Caracalla Caesar and his mother are rather special) seem to have Nemesis types on the reverse.
Who ever saw Septimius at Nicopolis facing left?  Are these his first coins here???
Pat L.

[bpmurphy]

Hi Pat,

This is the second example I've seen in the last week. There's another example in a large lot in the upcoming Gorny sale. From the photo, it looks like the same obverse die. I enlarged the picture slightly from the website, so it's a bit grainy. The photo in the catalog is a bit larger and sharper. Don't know what the reverse type is. If I buy the lot, I'll post a better picture of the coin.

Barry Murphy

[slokind]

It would be interesting to know if the reverse is another Nemesis, to know the appearance of the Julia Domnas of this size, to know whether any other such Septimius have PER (not that it's too significative at Nicopolis), since the size (for the whole family) as well as the head facing left on at least one die are exceptional.  Also, does anyone know the obverse of Domna's Sleeping Eros, which shares its reverse with Caracalla Caesar?  The style of the Nemesis reverse here is a little different from the usual Nicopolis, too, whether for Commodus or for Septimius' family.  Bland.  Pat L.

[curtislclay]

A VF spec. from the same dies as Pat's was in Blancon List 41, 2003, 607.

[bpmurphy]

Pat,

While cruising the internet today, I stumbled across another. It seems to be the same dies.

Barry Murphy

[slokind]

That one is exceedingly nice.  Thanks for finding and posting.
Even with a head to r., no. 1345, the whole batch of these Nemesis-reverse, medium-size bronzes is rare in the larger picture, which I associate possibly with a not yet settled pattern of coin issues, not later than the same-size sleeping Eros coins that appear to go with them.   There Caracalla is Caesar, and, though he was Caesar for a while, I'm waiting to see a really good Julia Domna one, whether her head on it is convincingly earlier than the Tertullus head.  Actually, the Septimius head to l. on these new coins (first non-existent, now a whole fistful of them) looks like a Gentianus head (not to say Auspex) to me, and I'd love to fancy (I choose the verb advisedly) that the sleeping Eros was issued for Caracalla and his mother when he became Caesar.  Pat L.