Ancient coins on a budget

Lockdales’ auction in Ipswich on July 5 sold a silver denarius of Septimius Severus. It was minted in Rome in AD 210. It changed hands for just £140. Severus was Roman emperor from 193 to 211. Arriving in Britain in 208, he invaded Caledonia (modern Scotland) with an army of 50,000 men, strengthening Hadrian’s Wall and reoccupying the Antonine Wall. His ambitions were cut short when he fell ill in late 210. He died in early 211 at Eboracum (York), and was succeeded by his sons.

There is a vast range of Roman coins at all price levels. If you want to collect examples that circulated from the first century to the second century AD, you will need to find two gold coins, an aureus and a quinarius aureus, two silver coins, the denarius and the quinarius argenteus, and five bronze coins: the sestertius, the dupondius, the as, the semis and the quadrans. Naturally rare gold coins will be the most expensive. Bronze coins far less so.