Gallienus - question about mints

Gallienus, Antoninianus, Minted AD 258-259 (Joint reign)
Obverse..GALLIENVS dot P dot F dot AVG Radiate, curaissed bust right
Reverse..GERMANICVS MAX V trophy between two seated and bound German captives
RIC VI#18 variant obv legend dots..Cologne

 

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I don't claim to know better but simply assumed that it must have been more than one mint simply based on different styles. At the time of Postumus and Victorinus, coins were produced in Cologne and Lyon, so why not also during the time of Gallienus.

I think at least two very distinct groups can be distinguished, which are both numerous:

I think that this coin exemplifies the style from Colonia Agrippina (Köln - Germany)




And this one I thought is a typical style from Lugdunum (Lyon - France), but that may be an attribution that is no longer accepted.



But of course there are no mint marks and style can be deceptive. Perhaps different die sinkers were at work in Cologne.

For the type at the beginning of the thread I believe I can distinguish three different styles:
Style 1 (which I believe to be from Cologne (the seller attributed it to Trier)


Style 2 (which I (and indeed the seller of this coin) attribute to Lyon - perhaps wrongly)


Style 3 (a particularly unusual style, which I have not seen before, but which seems to best matched with coins from the mint of Rome or Viminacium)


Overall, I cannot be sure. Maybe at least two very distinct styles were produced simultaneously by the mint of Cologne. For both distinct styles numerous examples exist. They are certainly the product of different die sinkers, perhaps different workshops, but I continue to believe different mints. The third style, to me looks exceptional. I cannot find other comparable coins of similar style, which is probably why Gorny&Mosch thought the coin was from Antioch. In my view it is a coin from Rome or perhaps Viminacium.

 

@Tejas, your interesting thesis predicts there should be a similar division into styles for Valerian's portraits from the same period. Does that prediction hold up?

Here's Valerian from "Cologne":


Edit: here's a complicated acsearch search that mostly fetches western mint Valerians, and another one that fetches the Sol and Vulcan types.

Also, I remember reading that Markus Weder differed from the canon about Gallienus mints, also based on style. Maybe worth digging his papers up.

 

Bronze Coin (AE Antoninianus) minted at Antioch during the reign of GALLIENUS in 257 A.D. Obv. IMP.GALLIENVS.AVG. rad., dr. & cuir. bust r. Rev. VICTORIA.GERMAN.: Victory presenting a wreath to Gallienus. (Victory over the Capri, in 257 A.D.) C #1173. RIC #452. DVM #323

 

Good points and good question. I don't know if "my theory" holds up with coin of Valerian. Your acsearch shows a rather unsystematic attribution to Cologne and Lyon. If I base the argument on these sellers' attributions, it quickly becomes a circular argument.

I guess we need to dig into the literature, to find an argument that establishes the fact, that only Cologne (or Trier) were active mints at the time, thus ruling out Lyon altogether. I'm afraid this cannot be answered on stylistic ground alone.

I bought this coin with an attribution to Lyon:






While this one was attributed to Cologne (not too much difference to the previous coin):



This coin was attributed to Rome:


This is clearly an eastern mint (Viminiacum or Samosata)



While this is almost certaintly Antioch:



I think this coin is from Rome:


Could this be Milan?

 

They are indeed only different engraving styles. Each mint had its style, kind of, but each engravers had also his own style and was more or less talented. All mints at that time had a range of style variations.

As for the Lyon mint, it was not active during the Gallic empire neither. This was also rejected by many authors since Elmer's and Lafaurie's works, as well as by Jerôme Mairat in his recent thesis about the coinage of the Gallic empire (which is the best work so far about the topic - freely available online on oxford's website if you are interested, the main points about the mints are in the first chapters. Mairat also summarise the debate about the mint under Gallienus and Valerian). Nonetheless, you will still find many auctions houses and dealers attributing them to Lyon since this is what you find in the RIC and the Cohen.

To be honest, the mint attributions you will find on acsearch are most often pointless, only a few auctions houses have it right about this problem (CNG and Jacquier are the ones that come to my mind, but there are of course others). The best way to forge your opinion is to read some books and articles, some are hard to get or in a foreign language but hopefully a lot of things is available online as well (notably on academia).

 

What a magnificent piece of work! Thanks for the pointer - and here's a link for those interested.

 

Won this one from CNG
AR Antoninianus (23 mm, 4.07 g., 6h) minted at Colonia Agrippinensis (Cologne) during the reign of GALLIENUS between 257-258 A.D. 1st. emission. Obv. GALLIENVS.P.F.AVG. Radiate, draped, & cuirassed bust right. Rev. GERMANICVS.MAX.V. Trophy, bound captive seated to left & right. RCS #2961. RICV #18. RSC #308. Toned, edge split, VF.

 

I just picked up this bronze coin of Gallienus from my old folders. It's of Asian Mint. Reverse shows Hercules. RIC 623.

 

Thanks a lot for the literature reference and the link. This is very interesting, so even the attribution to Cologne may in many cases be wrong.

Jerome Mairat writes: "Conclusive hoard evidence proves that the main mint was located at Trier, and not at Cologne. ...."

 

I read VICTORIAE AVGG IT GERM, a correct legend.

 

Indeed, when it comes to the mints of the gallic empire it is agreed that the main mint was Trier and that Cologne was probably (re?)opened by Postumus in his late reign. Then both mints were operating during the reigns of Victorinus and Tetricus, and were probably merged again into a single treveri mint by Tetricus.

Two interesting points :
- the first coins minted by Postumus have a very unusual portrait and an error in the legend (POSTIMVS), suggesting that Postumus was away and that engravers did not know how he looked and how to spell his name
- the very last coins minted for Gallienus are the coins of Saloninus bearing the title of august (a few dozens are known), and it is very likely that they were made in Cologne while the city was besieged by Postumus

 

Coin above and this one recent purchases, both sold as from Cologne.