Hybrid denarius of Antoninus Pius/Septimius Severus or imitation?

[Anton P]

Hello everyone

Could you please advise if this coin is hybrid denarius or imitation?

Weight 3.88g
Av. ANTONINVS AVG  PIVS PP TR P COS
Rev. LEG  .......  TR P COS

Regards
Anton

[curtislclay]

Certainly an imitation, note in particular the clumsy style of the RP in rev. exergue. As a general rule, official mints never produced mules from dies separated by such a long time span.

Nevertheless an attractive and interesting coin, in my opinion.

Too bad one cannot read the legionary number on the rev., however!

[Anton P]

Thank you very much for clarification, the answer is comprehensive as always.

[traveler]

Hello,

Thanks for posting this . I think the LEG number is XXII. Pls see the attached image, I believe it's a reverse die match.

It's definitely still an imitation though.

https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=76247

[curtislclay]

Well observed, but a little puzzling!

Both contact dies, derived by the counterfeiter from genuine coins?

Does Pius ever have such a thin neck on official dies?

[traveler]

Hello,

I've never seen an Antoninus Pius obverse die with such a thin neck, but the style seems generally ok to me.

I lean towards the LEG XXII die being official. So, yes perhaps the OP's coin was made by counterfeiter contact dies.

It still doesn't explain why the counterfeiter combined these dies though. The time gap is large.

[Anton P]

Hello

Thank a lot for valuable observation! Real detective story, that is why we all love roman numismatic.


Regards
Anton