RPC VI, 10390 (temporary)

 

Image of specimen #2

 

Coin type
Volume VI
Number 10390 (temporary)
Province Egypt
Region Egypt
City Alexandria
Reign Severus Alexander
Person (obv.) Severus Alexander (Augustus)
Issue L Η = 8
Dating 228/9
Obverse inscription Α ΚΑΙ ΜΑ ΑΥΡ ϹΕΥ ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟϹ ΕΥ
Obverse design laureate, cuirassed bust of Severus Alexander, right, seen from front
Reverse inscription L Η
Reverse design Julia Mamaea standing facing, head right with stephane, holding sceptre and gateway
Metal debased silver
Average diameter 24 mm
Reference M 3024, E 3114 (8)
Specimens 3 (1 in the core collections)
Note J.G. Milne, 'Some Alexandrian coins', JEA 4 (1917), pp. 177-86, at 182-3 (with pl. XXXVI.1): 'the empress is holding the model of a gateway presumably erected in her name. … There is no clue to the identification of the gateway represented by the model. It was presumably at Alexandria'. Milne was followed by Vogt, pp. 186-7, but the identification as Mamaea has been denied by E. Kosmetatou, ‘The public image of Julia Mamea. An epigraphic and numismatic enquiry’, Latomus 61.2 (2002), pp. 398-414, at 404, preferring Alexandria, but the figure does not wear Alexandria's characteristic elephant head-dress. The hairstyle and the stephane seem exactly like those found on obverses of Mamaea.

Specimens of this coin type

Number Number Museum Bibliography
1 1     O: HCR27400 M 3024
2 2     ✸ DS 9849 = Ars et Nummus 9–10, 1970, lot 157 = Ars et Nummus 7–8, 1972, lot 163 ( = Figari - Mosconi 1116)
3 3     Peckitt (Sotheby 21 Feb. 1929) lot 368