72, Lot: 104. Estimate $100. Sold for $82. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS. 193-211 AD. AR Denarius (19mm, 2.46 gm). Uncertain Eastern mint. Struck after 199 AD. SEVERVS PART M, laureate head right, seen from behind / TR P III IM V COS G, Trophy with barbarian captives seated on shields on either side. Cf. RIC IV 435 (Emesa); cf. BMCRE pg. 101, 410: cf. RSC 658. VF.

While the reverse of this issue dates the coin to 195 AD, the inclusion of PART M must have only occurred after 199 AD, when Severus received the title. Moreover, the mint at which this denarius was struck is open to speculation, The legend design suggests Alexandria; the bust style Laodicea. RIC split the difference and opted for Emesa while BMCRE ambiguously chose an "eastern mint." During Severus' eastern campaigns, mint strictures were loosened, allowing local moneyers, who would earlier have been considered counterfeiters, to take up the slack for the limited material coming from official mints.