Caracalla. Denarius

Caracalla; 198-217 AD, Rome, 212 AD, Denarius, 3.25g. Cf. BM-43, C-205, and RIC-195. Obv: ANTONINVS PIVS - AVG BRIT Head laureate r. Rx: P M TR P XV COS III P P Annona, veiled, seated l. holding two wheat ears and cornucopia, modius before her. The tribunician number in the reverse legend was recut in the die from TR P XIIII (211 AD) to TR P XV (212 AD). Ex Curtis L. Clay Collection. In the Num. Chronicle for 1973, pp. 222-3, Ken Elks pointed out that on a number of the reverse dies for Caracalla's Elephant denarii of 212 AD, the emperor's tribunician number had been altered in the dies from TR P XIIII to TR P XV. About 25 years later, Curtis Clay and Barry Murphy noticed independently of each other that the same alteration of the tribunician number was also carried out on many of the reverse dies of a second contemporaneous denarius type of Caracalla, namely Annona Seated. Six such Annona Seated denarii with altered tribunician numbers are here offered for sale from the Curtis Clay collection.. MS