Saturday 6 February 2010

A late Sestertius of Severina


Many people incorrectly call this bronze coin of Severina an As, rather than a Sestertius which it should properly be known as. This is perhaps the last substantive issue of the Roman bronze denomination, the swansong of a denomination that limped on sporadically from this period to the coinage reform of Diocletian and Maximianus in the period 294-6 (yes, I know the original sestertii were silver). This issue was accompanied by a double Sestertius and an issue of Denarii.

Severina was the wife of the Roman emperor Aurelian (270-5), although she only appears on the later coins of the reign, after the base silver reform in c.274 AD.

As an aside this photo has been taken with the light at a different angle to previous shots of mine in that a more vertical angle, rather than transverse or oblique angle, has been used. It's produced a reasonable image of a coin with somewhat rough surfaces.