Hello Altmura!
Many thanks for this interesting article by Dario
Calomino. I knew him until now only as the author of works on Nicopolis in
Epirus.
On the coins of
Severus Augustus,
Pick (AMG I/1) writes in note 1, to no. 2039:
"Since nowhere coins of Nicopolis with the
head of
Severus Alexander can be proved, we must assume an error on Vaiilant's
part in the indication of the
obv.",
and in note 2 to no. 2039: "Here, too, there must be an error; it is a coin of
Caracalla on which the name of the governor was illegible."
In short:
Pick did not know any coins of
Severus Alexander from
Nicopolis ad Istrum. He considers the opposite to be an error.
This leaves only the two coins #14 and #15, of which
type #14 is also in my
collection and is illustrated and described in
Hristova-Hoeft-Jekov. About these two coins Colomino writes that they were not issued by the
mint, but outside the usual distribution channel of the city production. At the end he becomes more specific and speaks of itinerant engravers who did not meet the
standard requirements of a
mint or
had never worked for a
mint. Thus these two coins belong to the group of coins usually referred to as "barbarian imitations" and can in no way be taken as proof that there were coins from
Nicopolis ad Istrum under
Severus Alexander. That is why we have decided to exclude them from the list of regular coins.
It also fits that the coins of
Elagabal, which
Calomino mentions and depicts, also belong to the group of "barbarian imitations". Of these, #19 is illustrated in
Hristova-Hoeft-Jekov and
comes from my own
collection, without
Calomino having asked me for permission to illustrate it. The
work of Mr.Jekov and myself is cited by
Calomino, but Mr.Calomino has not contacted me or Mr.Jekov.
Calomino is of the opinion that one reason for the closure of the
mint at
Nicopolis ad Istrum may have been that the coinage under
Elagabal may have been so great that there was simply no need for coins. This, however, is in contradiction to the fact that in the final
part he cites the lack of small change in the army as the reason for the "barbarian imitations", a phenomenon that has long been known.
With kind regards
Jochen