LIBIUS SEVERUS GOLD SOLIDUS EXTREMELY RARE ISSUE OF RAVENNA – XF NGC GRADED ROMAN IMPERIAL COIN OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE (Inv. 19570)

$6,500.00

19570. WESTERN ROMAN EMPIRE. LIBIUS SEVERUS, AD 461–465.
Gold Solidus, 4.34 g, 21 mm. Issue of Ravenna.
Obv. D N LIBIVS SEVERVS P F AVG, diademed, draped and cuirassed bust of Libius Severus right. Rev. VICTORIA AVGGG, emperor standing facing, holding cross and Victory on globe, stepping on human–headed serpent, R–V in field, COMOB in exergue.
RIC X 2718.
NGC graded XF, Strike 5/5, Surface 1/5, “bent,” with a variety of other notations regarding the various surface problems incurred by the coin during circulation in antiquity – marks, edge marks, scuffs, scratches, brushed. Despite its numerous problems, it is a very rare variety of Severus’ coinage with only 4 other specimens on CoinArchives.

In AD 461, Ricimer, the powerful Germanic magister militum of the Western Empire elevated an undistinguished senator named Flavius Libius Severus Serpentius as a puppet emperor. The Eastern Emperor Leo I did not recognize the legitimacy of Libius Severus, but he at least agreed to dissuade Marcellinus, the semiautonomous governor of Dalmatia, from attacking Italy. Few details are known about the reign of Libius Severus beyond that he made concessions to the Visigoths in Gaul in an effort to contain the ambitions of Aegidius, the magister militum per Gallia. The Western Emperor is variously reported to have died peacefully of natural causes or from poison administered by Ricimer.