ROMAN COIN

214

Roman plated copy of a silver denarius combining aspects of coins of Septimus Severus and Caracalla. The obverse portrait is of Septimius Severus with the legend [ ] AVGVSTVS. The full reading of AVGVSTVS is normally only found on the silver of Caracalla (RIC IV, cf. 50). However, the portrait is undoubtedly that of Severus suggesting that the die engraver has conflated two types. The reverse, [P M] TR P XVII [ ] COS III P P, appears to be a loose copy of a coin of Caracalla; P M TR P XVII IMP III COS IIII P P, Roma standing left (RIC IV, c.f. 243) with the addition of a captive to left seen on earlier coins of Caracalla (ibid 20), dating to AD 214. Therefore the coins was probably made after 214.