Nummus - Severus II VIRTVS AVGG ET CAESS NN, Ticinium

Severus II was elevated to Caesar under Diocletian's restructured tetrarchy in 305 AD, and this Ticinum issue dates to the opening months of that appointment. The Ticinum mint — modern Pavia — was one of the more active western workshops during the tetrarchic period, positioned to supply the armies of the Italian and Pannonian frontier. Severus's tenure as Augustus would prove catastrophically short: after being proclaimed Augustus in 306, he was captured by Maxentius the following year and forced to commit suicide, making coins bearing his titles among the more historically loaded of the late tetrarchic sequence.