I Went Looking For Stamps And Stumbled Upon A Rare Dupondius of Severus Alexander

[JAZ Numismatics]

A friend of mine collects stamps, so I was prowling around eBay looking for a Christmas gift for him, and I saw that one of the stamp dealers had an ancient coin for sale, probably something he acquired incidentally in a stamp collection I thought. So I clicked on it and discovered a dupondius of Severus Alexander. The item was simply listed as, "Dupondius" - no further attribution. The image of the reverse was fuzzy, so I couldn't narrow it further, but it was some sort of seated figure and I could see the patina was intact, so I put in the (very low) opening bid and later that day, eBay informed me I had won the auction. It completely flew under the radar. 

The coin arrived today, and it turns out to be a very rare Securitas type minted for only one year, 223, the second year of Alexander's reign, when he was fourteen years old, and the detail is quite pleasing...

 

RIC lists five varieties of Securitas dupondii for SA. 399 does not have a lighted altar at Securitas' feet. 408h matches my coin as far as I can tell (radiate, draped). 408i has the bust radiate, draped, and cuirassed. Sometimes it's hard to tell if a bit of cuirass is showing through the drapery, but I don't see any on my coin. Let me know if you disagree. The other two varieties are 612f and 612h, both of which have reverse legend SECVRITAS PERPETVA. These last two were minted from 222 to 231, but they are still quite scarce. I found five on ACsearch here, for example. I found no examples online of the coins minted only in 223. Does anyone have one?

Edited December 13, 2024 by JAZ Numismatics

[Roman Collector]

Great deal! I love it when this sort of thing happens!

[John Conduitt]

Well found.

I think it might be cuirassed, only because the one in the BM is meant to be cuirassed (the example for RIC 408i) and the bust looks the same. Maybe the straighter bit at the back is cuirass 🤷‍♂️ On the other hand, I haven't seen a 408h. Do they exist?

Edited December 13, 2024 by John Conduitt

[JAZ Numismatics]

44 minutes ago, John Conduitt said:

Well found.

I think it might be cuirassed, only because the one in the BM is meant to be cuirassed (the example for RIC 408i) and the bust looks the same. Maybe the straighter bit at the back is cuirass 🤷‍♂️ On the other hand, I haven't seen a 408h. Do they exist?

Yes, thank you kindly! 408i it is then. That right angle certainly does suggest a cuirass.

[CPK]

Nice coin! It's always a great feeling to snag one under the radar. 

[AncientOne]

Well spotted!  Talking about stamps I went through my pile of world stamps yesterday and found this.

[JAZ Numismatics]

13 minutes ago, AncientOne said:

Well spotted!  Talking about stamps I went through my pile of world stamps yesterday and found this.

Forgive me, but I know nothing about stamps, but it's a lovely image. Is it rare?

[Amarmur]

I recently scored a great deal for these Hadrian travel bronzes I got both for about $30. One is from Antioch and the other one is from Cappadocia (a bit rarer). Nice to grab Hadrian travel coins especially when they go this cheap. 

[panzerman]

Truly amazing find!

 

John

[AncientOne]

14 hours ago, JAZ Numismatics said:

Forgive me, but I know nothing about stamps, but it's a lovely image. Is it rare?

Not so much as it is collectable.  It's one of the highest value Japanese stamps from the 1940's. 

[Ancient Coin Hunter]

Nice catch