Hi. I can read Gallineus Aug , and Salus Aug respectively on the obverse and reverse of this bronze coin. It's likely to be listed as RIC 581, rad Siscia. But in this case, Wildwinds lists the coin as a billon not a bronze one. So I clicked an almost similar one under RIC 581, rad, cuir, I which is made of bronze , and had the following response: EROR 404 - Please report to Dane.. ad so.. Of course, I shall report. But first I kindly need your views on this newly acquired coin. Thanks guys..
i don't know 7C, i think there is quite a bit of variation in billon, some of them look very much just like bronze coins (i assume they have a high base metal percentage).
Most Wildwinds write-ups are taken from dealers who vary greatly in ability as well as legitimate differences in opinion as to what to call a coin with 1% silver under a thin silver colored wash. AE or BI???? No matter.
This site teaches me something new all the time....I wasn't aware that Silver washed bronzes had any silver within the core except as a minute residual content typical of all trace metals/minerals found within almost anything...
http://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=7571 The standard explanation of this type is Apollo standing holding a branch and resting his elbow on a tripod ---- no snake. The above link shows a better example of the type. Apollo is often shown with a branch and tripod. Compare this coin from 500 years earlier. http://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=1201380 Silver content varies with some having next to none and some better but still needing the wash to look silver. Sometimes the wash may have actually been silver while others may have had other white metals. There were several mints and several years involved before Aurelian more or less standardized things on one part silver to 20 parts copper and marked the coins XXI or KA to attest that the metal was as advertised. http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/aurelian.html Gallienus started the silver wash idea in his later years but most coins we call AE were expected to have some silver for another century. There were a few unwashed and non-silver containing issues mixed it along the way. Relatively few collectors today study metal content to great extent but there have been some scientific papers on some periods. In the time of Gallienus, it seemed pretty chaotic and fell quickly from decent looking silver coins in the earliest years to pretty straight copper at the end.
