Septimius Legionary

It has been a while since I added a coin to my specialty collection of Seprimius Severus Legionaries but this one appeared online with a photo good enough to ID the dies but poor enough not to show the numerous scratched that made it no bargain. Still it is what it is so I'm keeping it. Of the Septimius legions the most common was Legion XIIII GEM M V, the legion Septimius himself was commanding in 193 AD. However, a few coins of this legion were made in the branch mint at Emesa so what might be seen as the most common is actually one of the more rare variations in the series. If you are really specialized in Emesa coins you may care that some dies dated COS II on the obverse ran out of room and completed the numeral beyond the point of the bust. My new coin (bottom) is a die duplicate of one of my older coins (top) but answered a question I had been wondering about so I was glad to see the coin even though it was a duplicate.




Between the II of the date at obverse bottom and the start of the IMP my old coin showed some weak I shaped marks which could be evidence of double striking or something in the die that might have been erased. While the new coin is abraded by poor cleaning, there is a hint in that spot suggesting that the questionable marks were in the die so it was not doublestriking but a die characteristic. Thing like that are only of interest to specialists and there are not a lot of us out there that collect these coins by minor variation. These coins are somewhere between very scarce and rather rare so I felt it necessary to buy this one when it became available. It might be a few years before I saw another. This would catalog as RIC 397 but that listing makes no distinction between the regular COSII variety and the COS-II die with the date split by the bust point. My more normal coins of RIC 397 are shown on my page:
http://www.forumancientcoins.com/do...legions.html

While I also collect ancient coins generally, I get particular enjoyment out of my specialized collections including the one that includes this coin. My theory of collecting is to know a little bit about many things and all I can about a few. I was able to add one coin to my Septimius collection in 2011 and now this one comes in 2012. It remains to be seen if the rest of the year will be more productive.