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
Edition Α(ὐτοκράτωρ) Καῖ(σαρ) Μᾶ(ρκος) Αὐρ(ήλιος) Σευ(ῆρος) Ἀλέξανδρος Εὐ(σεβής)
Translation Emperor Caesar Marcus Aurelius Severus Alexander Pious
Obverse design laureate, cuirassed bust of Severus Alexander, right, seen from front
Reverse inscription L Η
Edition (ἔτους) ηʹ
Translation of year 8
Reverse design Julia Mamaea standing facing, head right with stephane, holding sceptre and gateway
Metal debased silver
Average diameter 24 mm
Average weight 11.53 g
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