Septimius Severus Denarius - Near-Naked Venus from Behind with Wrong Legends

[Marsyas Mike]

Well, this one has me stumped.  It is (or so I thought) a rather scarce denarius issued for Septimius Severus in Alexandria showing Venus from behind, (barely) draped, a type common for his wife Julia Domna, but scarce for Septimius Severus.  @dougsmit ably describes this issue and its peculiarities in a FORVM article here:  https://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/feac41ven.html?srsltid=AfmBOop8ec4RpCRsb1NMzObtCq0HiK92f1jf4-JnAczpYuCCucC6CgDJ (Thanks Doug!).  

Here is the OCRE description: 

RIC IV Septimius Severus 350K

Date 193 - 195

Denomination Denarius

Mint Alexandria

Obverse IMP CAE L SEP SEV PERT AVG: Head of Septimius Severus, laureate, right

Reverse VENERI VICTR: Venus, draped, standing left, leaning on column, holding apple in right hand and palm sloped over left shoulder in left hand

The problem is that my obverse legends do not match OCRE, or Doug's, or the three I found on acsearch.  Mine seems to be: L SEPT SEV PERT AVG IMP IIII (I got this legend off of RIC 464 - a denarius with Jupiter from Laodicea). 

Here's a photo of mine:

Branch mint blunder?  Mule of some sort?  Of course it could just be a fake, but it does not have a modern feel to it - it seems to have been struck, and the metal is granular, in keeping with many Severan-era silver coins.  The slightly "off" design seems to correspond to Doug's observations on the coins of the Alexandria Mint in the article cited above.  

If anybody can shed some light on this, I'd appreciate it. 

Edited September 12, 2024 by Marsyas Mike

[ambr0zie]

I will not comment about the mint as I am not skilled enough in distinguishing Rome and non Rome Severan coins, but I am pretty sure that 1. the obverse legend you found is correct and 2. this coin is not in RIC. 

I would go for the mule route.