S. Severus Denarius Laodicea Ad Mare Mint Ric 467 Bon Event

A nice find. These issues are one of my passions.

For note I think that the attribution needs to be updated to bring it in line with current thinking. A failing of OCRE is that it follows RIC even where RIC is in error. In this case we have a series of coins produced with IMP VIII, which due to their off-centre strike or wear pattern combined with an obverse legend split mean that the obverse legends have been mis-read. This has led to both RIC and BMCRE having entries for IMP VI, IMP VII and IMP VIII for these eastern coins that should all be allocated to the IMP VIII issue. This has been proven where some coins cited by RIC/BMCRE have been shown through die matching to be mis-readings.

This coin would therefore be:-

Reference:- BMCRE 437 Note corr. (VIII not VII). RIC 467 corr. (rated S) (467 is IMP VII). Cohen 63 (citing Paris).

If I were adding your coin to my records I would annotate it as follows:-

Obv:- L SEPT SEV PERT AVG IMP VII-I, Laureate head right
Rev:- BO-N EVENT, Fides standing left holding basket of fruits in right hand, grain ears in left

It is a relatively scarce coin in the series. I would live to find an example from those dies as the different dies with different legend breaks allow us to build up a better understanding of the production of this mint at this time. Your coin has the VII-I obverse legend break with the last I visible beneath the bust. It also has a reverse legend break that I don't have in my collection

I have managed to obtain a few over the years.

My first coin shows how the condition of these could lead to ambiguity in the reading



The next two however are unambiguous




The British Museum has an example of the type from the same reverse die as my second example (image below courtesy of the British Museum):-



There is an issue here in that they have incorrectly attributed the coin. The RIC attribution is to RIC 473 which is BONI EVENT and the BMCRE attribution is to BONI EVENTVS. I will inform them of this.

https://www.britishmuseum.org/colle...997-1203-118

Also keep an eye open for the longer legend variant.

Obv:- L SEPT SEV PERT AVG IMP VIII, Laureate head right
Rev:- BONI EVENTVS, Fides standing left holding basket of fruits in right hand, grain ears in left
Minted in Laodicea-ad-Mare, A.D. 196-197
References:- RIC 474 (scarce). RSC 67b

I know that my posts on these are often long and rambling. I need to put all this information down somewhere. I am working on a website but it is slow work.