Watch List notes:

ROMAN AND BYZANTINE COINS

Julia Domna. Augusta, AD 193-217. Aureus (Gold, 19mm, 7.28 g 12), Rome, 194. IVLIA DOMNA AVG Draped bust of Julia Domna to right, her hair in five waves and bound up at the back. Rev. VENERI VICTR Venus, half nude with her drapery folded underneath her posterior and seen from behind, standing to right, holding a palm branch in her right left hand, a globe in her right and leaning with her left elbow on a low column to her left. BMC 47. Calicó 2641a. Cohen 193. Hill 100. RIC 536. A beautiful, sharply struck and toned example with a wonderful youthful portrait. Virtually as struck.

From an American collection, ex Gorny & Mosch 190, 11 October 2010, 521.

While nearly nude, Venus carries a palm branch and a globe, and is given the epithet "Victrix", which means she is on the coinage to celebrate the victories of Septimius Severus over his rivals for the Empire. The portrait of Julia Domna on the obverse shows her as a beautiful young woman in her mid 20s, but one who had the force of character to cope with her husband and what proved to be two murderously jealous sons.