Watch List notes:

Elagabalus . Denarius; Elagabalus ; 218-222 AD, Rome, 222 AD, Denarius, 3.39g. BM-269, RSC-213c (citing BM), Eauze-252 (2 spec.). Obv: IMP ANTONINVS - PIVS AVG Bust laureate, draped r., with "horn". Rx: P M TR P V - COS IIII P P Emperor in Syrian priestly dress sacrificing l. from patera over altar and holding branch, star in field l. From the Philip Ashton Collection, acquired in October 1997. Scarce with "horned" portrait in TR P V, the short last tribunician year of Elagabalus' reign; of thirteen denarii with this date in the Eauze hoard, only two still showed the "horn", while eleven omitted it. Elagabalus' first attempt to assassinate his cousin Severus Alexander Caesar, then, will have taken place quite early in 222, probably before the end of January, since after that attempt went awry Elagabalus had to promise reforms of his scandalous lifestyle to placate the Praetorians, and Elke Krengel has plausibly suggested that removal of the "horn" from his coin portraits was one of the reforms then acceded to. The "horn", after all, was undoubtedly part of Elagabalus' Syrian priestly costume, so in Roman eyes an unfit attribute for a Rome-mint coin portrait; according to Krengel, it was probably the tip of an embalmed bull's penis!. EF