Watch List notes:

The Roman Empire

Carus, 282 – 283. Quinarius, Ticinum 283, billon 1.80 g. CARVS AVG Laureate and cuirassed bust of Carus l., wearing consular robes and holding Victory on globe and club. Rev. AV C CARINVS C Cuirassed bust of Carinus l., holding Victory on globe. C –. RIC –. King –, cf. 4.
Apparently unique and unrecorded. Two interesting portraits. Brown tone
heavily tooled, otherwise about extremely fine
Ex NAC 54, 2010, 592 and NAC 87, 2015, 342 sales. From the George Hopkins collection.
This quinarius offers two portraits with virtually identical facial features, yet different treatments. The emperor Carus is shown wearing consular robes and holding a Herculian club and a globe topped with Victory. His eldest son, the Caesar Carinus, does not hold a club, and instead of consular garb, wears a soldier's cuirass. The portrait of Carinus is presented exactly as we might expect, with his beard in tight curls (a defining feature of his coin portraits), yet that of Carus is shown without his trademark receding hairline, suggesting it was produced before his likeness was well known in the West.