Watch List notes:

The Roman Empire

Septimius Severus, 193 – 211. Aureus 200-201, AV 7.35 g. SEVERVS AVG – PART MAX Laureate head r. Rev. AETERNIT·IMPERI Confronted busts of Caracalla, laureate, draped and cuirassed, on l. and Geta, bareheaded, draped and cuirassed on r. C 1 var. (PARTH on obverse and IMPER on reverse). BMC 184. RIC 155c. Calicó 2598a.
Very rare. Three finely engraved portraits struck on a very broad flan, good very fine

Ex Rauch 67, 2001, 515
Masterfully suited to the purposes of a dynastic coinage, this aureus is inscribed AETERNIT IMPERI, "the eternity of the empire," which equates the continuity of the empire with the continuity of the Severan dynasty. The positioning of the portraits is just as would be expected: the father and senior emperor Septimius Severus occupies the position of honor on the obverse and his two sons occupy the reverse, with the elder, Caracalla, on the left wearing a laurel wreath to indicate his status as junior Augustus, and the younger, Geta, bare-headed on the right to denote his lesser status as Caesar. Although the brothers were relatively close in age, Caracalla had been hailed Augustus in 198 and Geta remained Caesar until 209. The explanation for this gap may never be known, but we may be sure it aggravated the rivalry that already existed between the siblings. As time passed each brother attracted his own faction of supporters in Rome and throughout the empire, and after Caracalla murdered Geta he wasted no time in tracking down and murdering a great many people who had been loyal to Geta.