British Reference Sestertius

CNG 109, Lot: 680. Estimate $2000. Sold for $3500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Septimius Severus. AD 193-211. Æ Sestertius (32mm, 28.41 g, 12h). Rome mint. Struck AD 211. L SEPT SEVE RVS PIVS AVG, laureate head right / VICT BRIT P M TR P XIX COS III P P, S C in exergue, two Victories standing vis-à-vis, holding round shield between them and fixing it on palm tree, at base of which are two seated captives. RIC IV 808 note (Cohen is not in error); Banti 165. Good VF, attractive, hard green patina.

From the Douglas O. Rosenberg Collection, purchased from Edward J. Waddell, 30 March 1996. Ex Ponterio 80 (29 March 1996), lot 351 and front cover coin.

In AD 208, Septimius Severus, together with the entire imperial family (his wife Julia Domna and their sons Caracalla and Geta), set out for Britain where the situation on the northern frontier demanded urgent attention. He was to spend the last two and a half years of his life in the island province and was destined never to return to Rome. Together with his elder son, the co-emperor Caracalla, he campaigned vigorously beyond the imperial frontier, penetrating far into Scotland. The line of their marching-camps can still be detected today by aerial photography. Severus also restored Hadrian's Wall, the northern frontier of the province, which was in serious need of renovation now that more than eighty years had elapsed since its original construction. Little is known of the success of these military operations, though they were to bring peace to the area for the remainder of the third century, and an extensive issue of coinage in all metals was produced to commemorate the British victory.