It can't be a
star, rather just a die fault, since stars never occur on any other
Roman coin of 193-217.
Stars occur on some coins of
Commodus in 192, perhaps in reference to a comet that is reported to have appeared in the sky late in Commodus' reign; and they appear on all
Roman coins of
Elagabalus from 220 until
his death in 222, clearly in reference to the Syrian sun god whose high priest the emperor was. Of course these intentional stars did not just appear on isolated, very
rare coins, but on every
Roman coin issued over a period of months (
Commodus) or years (
Elagabalus).
