Mustachioed Severina

This coin seems very very odd to me. Out of the two bust type know for this empress it doesn't match either of them. I don't know what to make of this coin other than it looks like it has be altered from something else.

The other coins look a little off as well. Only 20 sales. He has a Balbinus also that is attracting some attention.

Ed, that though came to mind also.

AE Antoninianus Ulpia Severina
Obv. SEVERINA AVG

For a period of eight months following the assassination of Aurelian no candidate stepped forward for a job no one
of 'sound mind' wanted any part of. It seems likely that the Empress Severina continued to rule in some sort of accommodation with the acquiescence of the Army until the reluctant Tacitus (aged 75) agreed to assume the burden.



The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Chapter XII

A.D. 275. February 3.A Peaceful interregnum of eight months

"The contention that ensued is one of the best attested but most improbable events in the history of mankind. (2) The troops, as if satiated with the exercise of power, again conjured the senate to invest one of its own body with the Imperial purple. The senate still persisted in its refusal; the army in its request. The reciprocal offer was pressed and rejected at least three times, and, whilst the obstinate modesty of either party was resolved to receive a master from the hands of the other, eight months insensibly elapsed; an amazing period of tranquil anarchy, during which the Roman world remained without a sovereign, without an usurper, and without a sedition. The generals and magistrates appointed by Aurelian continued to execute their ordinary functions; and it is observed that a proconsul of Asia was the only considerable person removed from his office in the whole course of the interregnum."

A.D. 275. Sept, 25. The consul assembles the senate.

"On the twenty-fifth of September, near eight months after the murder of Aurelian, the consul convoked an assembly of the senate, and reported the doubtful and dangerous situation of the empire. He slightly insinuated that the precarious loyalty of the soldiers depended on the chance of every hour and of every accident; but he represented, with the most convincing eloquence, the various dangers that might attend any farther delay in the choice of an emperor. Intelligence, he said, was already received that the Germans had passed the Rhine and occupied some of the strongest and most opulent cities of Gaul. The ambition of the Persian king kept the East in perpetual alarms; Egypt, Africa, and Illyricum were exposed to foreign and domestic arms; and the levity of Syria would prefer even a female sceptre to the sanctity of the Roman laws. The consul then, addressing himself to Tacitus, the first of the senators, required his opinion on the important subject of a proper candidate for the vacant throne."

interesting coins...maybe time for a wax job. on the mustach...not the coin.

Very interesting, FR-- I didn't know that!