| Harlan J. Berk, Ltd. > Buy or Bid Sale 230 | Auction date: 28 January 2025 |
| Lot number: 11 Price realized: Unsold | Show similar lots on CoinArchives Find similar lots in upcoming auctions on  |
| Lot description: Septimius Severus. Aureus; Septimius Severus; 193-211 AD, Rome, 209 or 210 AD, Aureus, 6.81g. A new reverse type, missing in the standard catalogues. Obv: SEVERVS - [P]IVS AVG Head laureate r. Rx: VESTA in exergue, sacrifice scene dated TR P XVII or XVIII before temple of Vesta. Ex Curtis L. Clay Collection; ex CNG E180, 23 Jan. 2008, lot 264. This new aureus reverse type, unknown until its appearance in CNG E180 of 2008, suggests that Septimius Severus and his wife and sons may have returned to Rome for one of the winters during his British campaign of 208-211 AD, despite the silence of the literary or epigraphic sources about any such trip. The style of the coin is that of the mint of Rome, though this specimen eventually made its way to India, where it was found according to the CNG cataloguer, and where Roman aurei and imitations of Roman aurei were often pierced with double holes, as on our coin. As to the figures in the reverse type, the three on the right might represent Septimius, Geta, and Julia Domna, Julia's head only being shown; and the three on the left Caracalla sacrificing at an altar, an attendant or guard standing behind Caracalla, and a boy attendant standing to the right of Caracalla's altar and below Julia Domna's head. A similar scene of imperial sacrifice before the round temple of Vesta appeared on aurei of Caracalla four or five years later, in 214 AD, apparently to commemorate the emperor's return to Rome after his German victories of 213 AD; see BMC pl. 70.5-6.. Fine Estimate: 3500 USD |  |
