The most common question I get emailed is if the coin is that of Severus Alexander or some other emperor. Attribution of a coin (figuring out who / what is on the coin) is one of the most difficult areas for new ancient coin collectors. If you know how to attribute coins, but are looking for pictures of Severus Alexander coinage to match your coin against, please take a look at the following sites:
Index of Scans of Severus Alexander Coinage
If you are continuing to read, I'll assume you are looking to learn more about attributing coins. I'm only going to cover the basics here but fortunately there are a wide variety of excellent beginner coin books and references that can help. I would first recommend that anyone starting to collect get a copy of one of Wayne Sayles' books from his series on ancient coins. The books cover Roman Coin, Greek Coins, Roman Provincial, etc. You can readily find these on Amazon.com.
If you don't have the money or time to buy a variety of books, what can you
do? Well there are also a variety of excellent web sites that can help you
attribute a coin. The best places on the web to start out is at
Forum's Information Site and
Doug
Smith's Site. I will proceed to give you the steps that
should help you at least get the basics on the coin. How
can you tell if they Imperial or Provincial? If you see strange Greek
letters, like delta 
, you probably have a
Greek or Roman (Greek) Provincial coin .
Let's start with this example. You find in your great uncle's desk the following coin:
 | First identify the material it appears to be. In this case it looks like gold. |
| You now need to try to get some idea of what type of coin it is. Looking at the following pictures below we see a Gold Aureus, a silver denarius, a US quarter, a bronze sestertius, and a bronze as. Looks like we have a Gold Aureus here. If you believe you have a Provincial coin, measure the diameter across the coin at its widest part in millimeters. |
| Next. Looks for any text that you can read on either side of the coin. The text is called the legends. Try using a magnifying glass if you can't read it. If the coin is impossible to read, you may need to clean it further. Check out this site for help on cleaning it. Don't be worried if you can't make out every letter. The side with the portrait on it is usually the obverse and the other side the reverse. In this case it looks like we have IMPSEVALEXANDAVG on the obverse and PMTRPVIIIICOSIIIPP on the reverse. No strange Greek letters so it is probably an Imperial coin. |
| Next step is to load the text from the obverse into an identication help system. For Roman Imperial coinage, try Ancient Coin.biz. This will give you some idea of what the Emperor you are probably dealing with. If you think it is Greek or Greek Imperial, try putting the results into Ancient Coin.biz. This will help you get the name of the city or the King involved with the coin. |
| In our example, we put in IMPSEVALEXANDAVG in, we get back Severus Alexander. Great... We now know the emperor. For a better understand of what these Abbreviations mean on the coin see Doug Smith's page on them. Also check out Bitsofhistory Page on the inscriptions. |
| Next look at the figure on the reverse. Quite often these will be Gods or Goddesses. Look at Gods and Goddesses. Some times they choose to use personifications of ideals or virtues (like harmony or mercy). See Personifications. Check both of these sites and see if the figures on the reverse look like anything there. Checking back on our coin and comparing it to the pictures, it looks like we have either a picture of Mars or Romulus. Both are carrying the same objects over their shoulders. Looks like one is a spear and the other looks like a trophy or something. |
| Let's look back at the obverse's portrait and compare it to the pictures on this page. Looks like Severus Alexander is laureate head right. |
| Taking all this information we go to the American Numismatic Society Search Page. Enter in the obverse and reverse text and search. Look through the entries and see what you find. Which one do you believe is the coin above? |
| Here is the response: |
1948.19.1830: Dept.: R Obj.Type: C Reference: BMC.620
Region: Locality: Mint: Rome
Material: AV Denom.: Aureus
Weight: 7 Size: Axis: 11
Date: 230 / 0 Era: Date on Obj.:
Category: Person: Severus Alexander Dynasty: Issuer:
ObvLegd: IMP SEV ALEXAND AVG
ObvType: head laur. r.
RevLegd: P M TR P VIIII COS III P P
RevType: Severus Alexander as Romulus advancing r. holding spear and trophy
PrevColl.: FindSpot:
Color: UnderType: CounterStamp:
Publication: Symbols: OtherInfo.:
Preferred URL: http://www.amnumsoc.org/lookup.cgi?string=1948.19.1830
| So now you know that this coin is of Severus Alexander and all the specifics. It is referenced (noted in a publication) as BMC 620. This stands for the British Museum Catalog number 620. If you looked at this catalog under number 620 you would see it listed. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| It was minted in 230 AD. Remember the reverse legend of PMTRPVIIIICOSPP. Look at this table and you will see it listed as year
230.
|
Don't be discouraged if the ANS database doesn't show your exact coin. If you write down all the information you compiled from above and do some searching in a few references you should find it. At the very least you have a lot more information than when you started.
This page just gives you the very basics to begin to learn how to attribute. Check out my informational page for more details on coin information on Severus Alexander. If you are truly interested in this subject get your hands on as many coin references as you can. You can either buy them or check your local libraries. Look at the coins in the references, try to attribute them on your own, see what they are listed as, and ask questions.
If you want to learn how to tell if an Imperial coin is from the Rome or Antioch mint, please go to my page on Mints.
Take a look at the following links. These sites have a variety of coins of Severus Alexander listed and attributed. See if your coin is like one on these sites.
Index of Scans of Severus Alexander Coinage
If you still can't attribute the coin and want an expert to do it for you, the best place to turn is to David Sear, the noted author and expert. For a very reasonable fee, he will attribute it for you.
Learning to attribute a coin takes time. The more you do it, the easier it will be. I am very grateful for all the help I have gotten and continue to get with learning to attribute. I am by no means an expert but if you need help, drop me a email. I will try to help or point you towards someone who may be able to.
For an idea of the coin's value, check out my Valuation Page.
