Gallienus Panther

I've made some noise in the past about collecting a set of Gallienus animal coins, so here we go. Ordinarily I avoid slabbed coins for the hassle of cracking them out, but I had to bid on this panther - it seems to me that panthers with sharp detail are tough in this series. Try to find one as nice as this! Well, you guys probably have a dozen examples...





Evidently this collection was offered back in 2002 by Heritage, and reading between the lines, it appears to have been a promotion for ancients in ICG slabs. Since neither the provenance nor the plastic mean anything to me whatsoever, I'll be rectifying the matter with a band saw.

 

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Once you have freed the panther you will be fully happy
Nice coin

Q

 

JA, awesome coin, your panther is off the chart, even if its a little off flan, the striking details are great...very very nice...this is my favorite series...

 

That is a very sharp panther, congrats!

It's a shame that the quality of most Gallienus coins is so poor.

Oh, and as for cracking it out, I've found that a few hammer blows with the slab standing on edge works fine and doesn't damage the coin. No dremel or hacksaw necessary.

 

I'm not particularly drawn to other coins of Gallienus, but the animal series is directly related to Roman mythology by way of the symbolic fauna. In this case, the panther is associated with the god Liber. It's always a trade-off with his coins. There are a handful of well-centered pieces on the market now with strong portraits and complete legends, but the panthers are either poorly engraved or weakly struck.

And I suppose the grade VF is reasonable for this coin, but the truth of the matter is, it may have looked no better the day it came out of the mint - another example of how pointless the modern grading system is when applied to ancients.

 

I think for the series, your panther coin is quite nice. For many, it's hard to identify the animal as a panther, but yours is readily identifiable. Here is my Gallenius panther. It could easily be a skinny house cat or dog or even a hyena for that matter:

 

Ive had no interest in collecting the animals of gallienus even though he is my favorite emperor.

Still the OP coin has good details for the panther, better then most. And the grade is just laughable, especially ICG. My vespasian was in an ICG slab.

Be careful if you crack it out, ICG slabs are a bit tougher to crack vs NGC for some reason. I think its cause they arent as thick.

 

Is there an ancient coin that depicts a hyena? I think it's a rare animal as far as coinage goes - I remember seeing some commemorative issues from Congo at a show once, but those were modern of course.

 

I've come across one or two auction descriptions recently which were uncertain, indicating that the animal might be a hyena. If I see them again I'll post them here. It was just speculative though. Seems like a hyena would not be a particularly desirable animal for a coin. (I'd buy one though )

 

I was only kidding about the hyena. However, I can imagine the Romans using packs of Hyena's in the Coliseum.

 

I dont think there is any ancients with a hyena. I searched ACsearch and CNG and nothing so I would say no.

Some ancients with dogs though.

 

Nice coin.

IMO the band saw is the best way to disassemble this type of slab. Other types can be easily cracked with a vise or hammer.

 

I've used a hammer, and I didn't worry so much about the coins as my fingers. The saw is a piece of cake: slice off the edges and it comes neatly apart.

 

Dont own one.

Ive always wrapped the slab tightly in a towel then take a hammer to the edges till it cracks, then its prying. 4 times ive done it, 4x times its worked OK.

ICG slab though just shattered.

 

Gallienus coins are not all poor quality but he went through a period where some mints were downright terrible. Unfortunately, the same period saw the most interesting types including the animals. The earliest joint reign and late Antioch mint coins can be well made.

Most of the animal coins issued by any emperor were related to a god who was associated with that animal. Liber (god of wine) was associated with the panther so any coin with legend LIBERO P CONS AVG must be suspected to show a panther. Read the legends on your other animals and see who was being honored. I am not aware of a god who liked the hyena so finding one on a coin seems unlikely.

I have two panthers. My first has nice reverse legends but weak centers. I 'upgraded' with a better panther but part legends coin and was about to put the old one in my sales box. Then I looked at my file on the coin and discovered that I had forgotten where I got the junker. It is ex John Quincy Adams collection. I paid more than it was worth in 1997 ($11) because of the Adams tag so I'll keep it now.

 

A John Quincy Adams provenance? Now that's interesting!

 

Sadly, I do not have a slick band-saw in my basement (I am more of a hammer, screw-driver and handsaw type of guy) ...

stevex6 SLAB removal procedure: (it has yet to fail me) ...

=> loosely wrap the SLAB with a hand-towel ... then go down to the basement (sweet cement floor) ... "carefully" give the SLAB a precise whack and you should hear a sweet crack ... then you can usually pull apart the SLAB and the coin will merely gently fall-out onto the hand-towel ... voila!!

NOTE => if you've wimped-out with your initial whack, then repeat the process until desired result has been achieved

QED

 

JA, my friend => that is definitely one fricken fantastic lookin' panther!! (congrats)

... oh, here is my good ol' bottom feeder example:

 

Hmm, I always pictured your slab busting as "hold tightly, then throw as hard as you can against the wall".

Or "drop slab on hard floor, smash with heel of foot while wearing shoes".

Then shout "HULK SMASH"!

 

Eng => I always enjoy seeing your sweet panther as well!!