Why do we collect Probus coins?

Why do we collect Probus coins?

Below I listed some of the main reasons which encouraged me to start collecting Probus coins.

You can view my whole Probus collection (organized into 10 folders; one folder per each mint) here:

www.colleconline.com/en/collections/3268/barnaba6

I am posting a link rather than sharing pictures because I have too many Probus coins to show in one thread let alone in one post

Please share your thoughts on the subject as well as pictures of your favorite Probus coins!

For your information I wrote the below short note on Probus’ coinage and the reasons for collecting Probus coins for the Rzeszowski Auction House which will offer a premium selection of Probus and Aurelian coins from my collection on 21 November 2021:

www.rda.onebid.pl/en/auction/1365033/1578/Monety-z-kolekcji-znawcy-monet-Probusa-cz-III

For more details about the auction see my announcement here:

www.cointalk.com/threads/rare-probus-and-aurelian-coins-at-rda-auction-viii-on-20-21-november-2021.388584/

The Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius Probus ruled for only 6 years (years 276-282 AD), but he left behind an exceptionally rich and interesting coinage, unique in the whole Roman empire. There are about a dozen thousand types (including numerous variants) of Probus coins!

Probus coins were struck by as many as 10 mints: Lugdunum (today's Lyon in France), Rome, Ticinum (today's Pavia in Italy), Siscja (today's Sisak in Croatia), Serdyka (today's Sofia in Bulgaria), Kyzikos (northern Turkey) Antioch (southern Turkey), Tripolis (today's northern Lebanon), a fourth eastern mint of as yet undetermined location and Alexandria (Egypt).

Each mint had its own unique style and consisted of a number of workshops minting particular types of coins.

The coinage of Probus captivates with an incredible wealth of types of reverses (over 100), many of which have several or even more than a dozen of different iconographic variants, a wealth of variants of imperial titulature (about 100), as well as a wealth of types of imperial bust (several dozen).

In addition, some bust types have many distinctly different variants not counting rare and sought-after decorations of the shield or cuirass in the form of, e.g. a Gorgon, an emperor on horseback, Sol's head, Sol in a quadriga, a laurel wreath, a floret, rows of soldiers with shields and many, many others.

Some Probus reverses are unique in the entire Roman coinage (e.g. ORIGINI AVG or SISICA PROBI AVG).

Similarly, some rare and sought-after Probus titulatures do not have their equivalents among coins of other emperors (e.g. titulatures BONO or PERPETVO) or are extremely rare and desired, e.g. the famous titulature DEO ET DOMINO.

Coinage is a very important source of knowledge about the reign of Probus, considering that - apart from a small number of papyri and inscriptions - no written (literary) sources contemporary to Probus have survived: in particular Scriptores historiae Augustae; De vita Caesarum; and the New History of Zosimos were written respectively more than 100 and 200 years after Probus' death.

A reliable, updated catalog (corpus) of Probus' entire coinage is unfortunately lacking so far. Volume V.2 of the Roman Imperial Coinage (RIC) by Percy Webb on Probus, among others, was published in 1933 and is completely outdated. It fails to record many hundreds, if not thousands, of currently known Probus coin types, assigns many coins to the wrong mints, and sometimes records types that do not actually exist. Therefore, attribution in the RIC for Probus coins must be approached with great caution.

The primary catalogs of the Probus mint - in addition to RIC V.2 - are:

Bastien (Pierre) for Lugdunum coins (Le monnayage de l'atelier de Lyon : de la réouverture de l'atelier par Aurélien à la mort de Carin (fin 274-mi 285), Wetteren, Éd. Numismatique romaine, 1976, 287 p., LXIII pl);

Alfoldi (Andreas) for Siscia coins (Siscia. Vorarbeiten zu einem Corpus der in Siscia geprägten römischen Kaisermünzen. Heft V. Verzeichnis der Antoniniane des Kaisers Probus, Budapest, 1939, 88 p. (extrait de Numizmatikai Közlöny, t. XXXVI-XXXVII, 1937-1938);

Guillemain (Jean) for Rome coins (La monetazione di Probo a Roma (276-282 d.C.), Rome, Quasar, 2009, 286 p., 20 pl. (« Ripostiglio della Venèra, Nuovo catalogo illustrato », III, 1).

Estiot (Sylviane) for coins from the 4th eastern mint ("L’Empereur et l’usurpateur: un 4e atelier oriental sous Probus"; Studies in ancient coinage in honor of Anndrew Burnett, Spink, London, 2015).

Also of great importance is the work of Karl Pink (Numismatische Zeitschrift, Der Aufbau der Romischen Munzpragung in der Kaiserzeit, VI/1 Probus, Wien, 1949), which to this day is the primary source when it comes to the description and chronology of individual issues (emmissions) within the mints of Ticinum, Siscia, Serdica, Kyzikos, Antioch and Tripolis. However, this work, too, is in need of revision and some divisions and classifications of issues are no longer tenable today.

Lack of up-to-date, reliable catalogs concerning the whole Probus coinage makes it significantly easier for collectors to search for previously unpublished coin types, thanks to which they significantly contribute to the development of knowledge about the Probus coinage, including the preparation of modern catalogs. For many years, collectors have been actively collaborating, e.g. on the revision of RIC volume V.2 under the guidance of Prof. Sylviane Estiot (the invaluable contribution of the late Philippe Gysen is worth mentioning here).

Collectors are also the authors of these fantastic and highly useful websites about Probus coinage:

www.probvs.net
www.probuscoins.fr

Finally, it was the collector Alexander Missong who first discovered and published the puzzling coded Eqviti series in his article 'Gleichartig systemisirte Münzreihen unter Kaiser Probus', Numismatische Zeitschrift (1873). For more information on the fascinating (A)EQVITI series, see Gert Boersema's article: http://www.oudgeld.com/webbib/translation_codewords.htm

As you can see, there are so many good reasons for collecting Probus coins!

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Wow, that's an amazing collection!

I don't collect coins of any emperor specifically, just a denomination (the antoninianus). I do have a couple of coins of Probus, though. Here's my favourite.


Probus antoninianus - TEMPR FELICI (sic!)
ex. Linchmere Hoard (found in 1924)

I see you also have one, which has different dies to mine.

 

I see a couple I may bid on. I love the helmeted types with shield and spear and will be bidding on some of the items in your collection. Curious as to why you would wish to part with so many excellent coins at this time.

 

Thanks Harry! I understand why it may be your favourite coin. It's an interesting and rare spelling error! Indeed I also have one example in collection from a different reverse die:

TEMPR FELICI - Coins - Ancient - Roman - Republic & Imperial - The military anarchy (colleconline.com)

 

Good luck then! I hope you win all the coins on which you plan bidding.

I decided about a year ago that I would significantly reduce the size of my Probus and Aurelian collection and focus only on coin types which are missing entirely in my collection (no longer adding new combinations of reverses/busts/legends/officinae that I already had in collection but in other combinations).

Now I am not sure anymore whether I will "only" reduce my specialized colection in size or perhaps sell it entirely. Time will tell. I have been collecting Probus coins for 9 years very intensively (both in terms of time and funds devoted to this). I arrived at a point where it was gettting more and more difficult to find interesting and reasonably priced coin types still missing in my collection. I thought maybe I should start looking for a new collecting theme. I also had some personal reasons to part with at least some of my coins. That's about it.

 

Very interesting thread. A few years ago, I had problems with the exact attribution of this Probus. It's finally Sylviane Estiot who gave me help, informing me it was only the 2nd known specimen !

 

Very interesting coin indeed. IMP C PROBVS P AVG (without the usual letter F[elix]) is generally a very rare obverse legend in Probus' coinage.

I know of only the below (second) example of this type:

Probus Coins
probuscoins.fr/coin?id=1845

I am curious whether Sylviae Estiot had this particular example in mind when telling you that your example is only the second known.

 

No one else collects Probus coins here? Please share your Probus coins and the reasons why you like / collect Probus coins.

 

I don't "collect" Probus coins, but I have a few. His portraits are varied and interesting enough that I had to get an example of each main type

Regular old radiate


Consular robes


Martial bust


Plus some others that followed me home - usually because I reckoned I wouldn't get a fair price if I sold them

A beautiful style "exploding chariot" but to the discerning buyers of eBay this would be a $5 coin on account of the hole and moderate wear


I'm a sucker for military victory types


This one has the best silvering I've ever seen on the reverse, but the obverse is so-so


And an Alexandria tet

 

I dont actively collect Probus, these came in lots with other coins:



my favourite Probus:



gift from Aethelred:

 

I'm a generalist collector, but really admire the dedication of specialists. This ORIGINI AVG type is one that I've always liked. I see that you have an incredible specimen in your collection, @barnaba6!

PROBUS
AE Antoninianus. 3.83g, 21.7mm. Siscia mint, AD 276-282. RIC 703 (R2). O: IMP C PROBVS P F AVG, radiate and cuirassed bust right. R: ORIGINI AVG, She-wolf (Lupa Romana) right, head left, suckling the twins Romulus and Remus; XXIT in exergue.

And here's a rather beat-up Probus aureus that's one of the highlight additions of my current collecting year.

PROBUS
AV Aureus. 6.28g, 21mm. Serdica mint, AD 276-282. RIC 829 (R3) corr. (with AVG in rev legend); Biaggi 1640 (this coin). O: SOL COMIS PROBI AVG, Jugate busts left of Probus, helmeted and cuirassed, holding spear and shield, and of Sol, radiate. R: SOLI INVICTO COMITI AVG, draped bust of Sol right.
Ex Leo Biaggi de Blasys Collection (NAC 49, 21 Oct 2008, lot 400); ex Münzen und Medaillen AG Basel 19 (1959), lot 250

 

There was a time I wanted to get into Probus but soon discovered that the most interesting ones were just too infrequently seen while the ones I saw differed from what I had in minor details I did not find interesting. Most of my favorites have the military or consular busts.


This last one is 'special' because it is a fake. The seller returned my money and let me keep the coin for my 'Black Museum'.

 

This is superb, congratulations on a lovely collection. It also highlights how differently everyone collects: I am very much a "type" collector where I'm looking for one coin of Probus - seeing the level of expert, specialist focus is inspiring.

 

Indeed, a specialized collection differs a lot from a general, broad, cross-sectional type collection but I think ultimately both have their pros and cons and it's a lot of fun to collect both types of collections.

 

Thanks Doug for sharing pictures of your Probus coins. Of course I know them all well - except for the fake coin - because I have followed your posts and website for years. Anyway, it's nice of the seller that he allowed you to keep the coin on top of returning you your money. It never ceases to amaze me how some forgers find it profitable to make forgeries of inexpensive, popular coins in an average condition.

 

I used to actively collect Probus more widely but have focussed more on his Lugdunum production in recent times. I have gathered them (over 175 coins) in galleries by emission (1-9) just so that I have a clear view of what sits where chronologically. I should finish off a project that I started some time back to illustrate them better. I will never collect all the possible varieties but try to fill a few gaps every year....

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=138
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=6755
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=6754
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=6753
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=6757
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=6758
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=6756
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=6752
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=6751

 

I actually have all 4 existing Probus types with the ORIGINI AVG reverse in collection but I assume you meant the first coin of the 4 below:

https://www.colleconline.com/en/ite...-to-roman-republican-imperial-alfoldi-040-004
https://www.colleconline.com/en/ite...-to-roman-republican-imperial-alfoldi-040-003 (this one is currently offered on auction)
https://www.colleconline.com/en/ite...oman-republican-imperial-alfoldi-040-001-sold
https://www.colleconline.com/en/ite...n-republican-imperial-alfoldi-040-002-b1-bust

Wow! That is a great Probus aureus indeed! I love this type with the jugate busts of Probus and Sol. And you got it for a bargain price! Excellent purchase!

 

I am very curious to see the results of that project once it is finished. Please share it!

 

@barnaba6 - I admire your dedication. I am a more general collector.
These are some of my favorite coins of Probus, all from the Gysen sale


Medusa head on shield


Mint Ticinum. Antoninianus, 4th Em. 278. VIRTVS PROBI INVICTI AVG. Heroic naked bust with staff, drawn spear, sword belt, Aegis in back view left.


Pegasus on shield