At the start of July 2022 I was outbid on a coin of Carausius in an online auction, a bit of an unusual coin, not particularly well preserved. It then popped up on a discussion board where the purchaser was asking what they had bought. Being very familiar with the reverse I bit my tongue and provided the identification.
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The reverse, poorly rendered, shows the dextrarum junctio, or clasped hands, normally associated with the reverse legend Concordia. The legend on this specimen, however, reads VXI AV and the mintmark is rendered W++I, probably a blundering of MLXXI. But what of the reverse legend?
We are fortunate that, although not in RIC the type is known and has been discussed before. There is a reverse die duplicate in the Ashmolean museum, purportedly found in the Colchester hoard, but strangely not included in the 1930 publication of the find. The coin entered the Oxford cabinet through the bequest of Sir Arthur Evans.
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I have seen discussions where the reverse is interpreted as VXI AV (Vxor Avgvsti) and so pertaining to the wife of Carausius. Whilst Caracalla and Plautilla clearly have a series of marriage coins with reverses of Propago Imperii and Concordia reverses with them pictured together there’s nothing else in the repertoire of Carausius’ coinage, other than the discredited Oriuna episode, to suggest a wife.