Denomination: Silver denarius

Period: Roman imperial

Date: AD 206

Origin: Rome mint

Condition: Fine + but chip to top edge, this does allow a rare view of the internal structure

Obverse: Laureate head, right, ANTONINVS AVGVSTVS

Reverse: Mars in military dress standing left leaning on shield holding reversed spear, PONTIF TRP VIIII COS II

Size and Weight: 18mm, 1.76g

References: RIC 83a

Features and Provenance: Caracalla reigned as emperor from AD 198 -217. At birth he  was named Lucius Septimius Bassianus, being renamed Marcus Aurelius Antoninus at the age of seven. He became known as Caracalla due to the Gallic hooded tunic he constantly wore of the same name. 

On a numismatic note, he debased the coinage in an attempt to pay his debts. By reducing the amount of silver and increasing the amount of copper in a coin he could effectively pocket the difference. At the beginning of his reign the silver content had been 55%, by the end it was 51%. He also introduced the antoninianus denomination, which was intended to be equivalent to two denarii, but with the silver content being so low it was worth only 1.5 denarii; this led to people hoarding the earlier coins because of the higher silver content, resulting in higher inflation and making matters worse.

Condition Summary. This varies with the age of coin and there are grades inbetween

Uncirculated (U). As struck with no traces of wear

Extremely Fine (EF). Very slight traces of wear, all parts of legend etc present, visible and clear

Very Fine (VF). Some signs of wear on the higher parts of the relief, all parts of legend etc present, but maybe worn

Fine (F). Wear on the coin and parts of legend etc may be missing or not visible