This section of my website is dedicated to the early Emesa denarii issues of Septimius Severus. The allocation of these denarii to the mint of Emesa was the supposition of Mattingly. Whilst there is no concrete evidence that it is where the mint is located it cannot be excluded as the mint location either.

The output at Emesa is split into fairly distinct groups, which are differentiated by their obverse legend.

The earliest of these groups has the obverse legend “IMP CAE L SEPT SEV PERT AVG” and is allocated to A.D. 193. (Whilst being relatively scarce there are some types that are significantly scarcer than others.)

The next group chronologically have the legends “IMP CAE L SEPT SEV PERT AVG II C”, “IMP CAE L SEPT SEV PERT AVG II CO”, “IMP CAE L SEPT SEV PERT AVG II COS” and “IMP CE L SEPT SEV PERT AVG CO”. (All coins with these obverse legends are generally quite scarce.)

The next group has the obverse legend “IMP CAE L SEPT SEV PERT AVG COS I”. (These are more common with a larger number of dies known.)

Finally leading to the large group with the obverse legend “IMP CAE L SEPT SEV PERT AVG COS II”. (There are much more common with a larger variety of obverse dies and reverse types.)

The sources of information for this lists in this section are BMCRE, Curtis Clay, Barry Murphy, Doug Smith, major sales, some online sales and coins from my own collection. Coins are illustrated wherever possible or their source is cited. This section is an attempt to document and illustrate as completely as possibly the early production of the mint at Emesa.

I am very much an amateur collector and lean heavily on the knowledge that is shared by Curtis and Barry and my thanks go out to them for their continued help in developing my understanding of this coinage.