Obverse: SEVERINA AVG; Diademed and Draped
Bust of the Empress Facing Right on a Crescent
Reverse: CONCORDIAE MILITVM; Concordia
Standing to the Left, Holding Two Military
Standards, XXI (in exergue)
Empress Severina was the wife of Aurelian, a well
liked and well respected emperor. Little is
known about the emperors of the chaotic Third
Century, and even less is known about the
women, as is the case with Empress Severina,
unfortunately. This coin portrait of Severina
shows us a determined face topped with an
elegantly coiffed hairdo. She looks strikingly
similar to Aurelian, suggesting that she might in
fact have been his sister and not his wife. It is
known that she accompanied the Emperor on
military excursions and slept in the same type of
beds used by common soldiers. From the
inscriptions on the reverse of her coinage, it is
possible that she was the only woman ever to
rule the Roman Empire, although only for the
short duration between Aurelian’s assassination
and the Senate’s appointment of Tacitus to the
throne.
How many hands have touched a coin in your
pocket or purse? What eras and lands have the
coin traversed on its journey into our
possession? As we reach into our pockets to pull
out some change, we rarely hesitate to think of
who might have touched the coin before us, or
where the coin will venture to after it leaves our
hands. More than money, coins are a symbol of
the state that struck them, of a specific time and
location, whether contemporary currencies or
artifacts of a long forgotten empire. This
stunning hand-struck coin reveals an expertise
of craftsmanship and intricate sculptural detail
that is often lacking in contemporary machine-
made currencies. This ancient coin is a memorial
to an emperor’s wife passed from the hands of
civilization to civilization, from generation to
generation that still appears as vibrant today as
the day it was struck.
- (C.7014)
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