Pre-Long Beach Auction #80

Pescennius Niger. Silver Denarius (3.23 g), AD 193-194. Antioch. IMP CAES C PESCEN NIGER IVST AVG, laureate head of Pescennius Niger right. Reverse BONA-E SPEI, Spes advancing left, holding flower and raising hem of skirt. Cf. RIC 3c (obv. legend ends AV); cf. BMC 298 (same); cf. RSC 8 (same). Boldly struck with an incredible portrait of Pescennius, all with lovely old cabinet toning. Very rare and a candidate for finest known!. Superb Extremely Fine.

From the scarcity of it today it would seem that Pescennius Niger's coinage was originally very limited. However, the enormous number of minor varieties - such as the remarkably well struck example offered here - shows that this is in fact not the case, and that output must have been monumental. No catalogue of his coinage is without numerous lacunae. The mints involved were, of course, in the East, Niger's primary imperial mint based at Antioch where he held court, and probably a subsidiary mint based at Caesarea in Cappadocia. After three successive defeats at the hands of his rival, Septimius Severus, Niger was finally captured and executed along with his entire family in AD 194. It appears that Severus then ordered the recall of Niger's coinage, and his instructions were meticulously followed.
Estimated Value $10,000 - 12,000.
Ex Imagines Imperatorvm Sale (Aureo & Calicó, 8 February 2012), 138.