Featured The LUGDUNUM mint challenge

That's the interesting issue of 375 with broken obverse legend DN GRATIAN - VS AVG G AVG, here is a similar RIC IX Lyon 20c, type xxii b:




A pre-reform silvered antoninianus/aurelianus of Constantius I Caesar from early 294, Bastien 187 probably, nice middle Britain patina:




A Constantine II for his second consulship in 321 CONSTANTINVS · IVN · COS · II Bastien 96:



A Tacitus from November-December 275, Bastien 24, with a nice "Kentish patina":




And a Crispus ready for war from about 322, Bastien 83:

 

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This type has been posted earlier, but it is the only coin that I have from Lugdunum.



I know that Claudius was born in Lugdunum, but I am not sure about the second emperor.

 

There have been several Nero coins from Lugdunum posted in this thread but I need someone more skilled than I to explain how this one is attributed to that mint.
My only Nero with the Lugdumum 'mintmark' is this dupondius.

 

If I understand it correctly, the mint was reopened under Clodius Albinus in 197 AD, worked only for a few months and only until the end of the 3rd century under Aurelian, possibly in 274 AD, the mint started again to struck coins.

There is an inconsistency because this implies that under Postumus (260 - 269 AD) the mint was closed and no coins of Postumus could have been struck at Lugdunum, right?

 

HI,

My only Lugdanum coin. Reference: RIC II, Part 1 (2nd Ed)-1268 OCRE



- Broucheion

 

Good point. We have to remember that Postumus was a usurper in Gaul. He's in the list of emperors who minted coins in Lugdunum. But the province was only recovered in 273 AD by Aurelian. That's why it is said that "possibly in 274 AD, the mint really restart his service". So officially the workshop was reopened by Aurelian, but Postumus strucked coins there maybe as soon as 259 AD.

 

A question that continues to bother me:

Is Lugdunum near Remulak???

 

and I'm also bothered with the thing about the Lugdunum mint (even though I don't have a Postumus coin).

Have been researching Postumus, and the one shown by Mat attributed as RIC V 303, according to numismatics.org was minted in Cologne, not in Lugdunum:
http://numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric.5.post.303

 

FL HELENA AVGVSTA / SECVRITAS-REIPVBLICE



Don't press me for too many details, I'm a noob, but it has been attributed to Lugdunum.

 

as already said by maridvnvm:

also the PAX AVG (RIC 78) currently for sale at vcoins is attributed to Cologne..
https://www.vcoins.com/en/stores/se...ianus__pax_avg__elmer_333/258557/Default.aspx

 

I have only two coins minted in Lugdunum.

Augustus AR Denarius, 2 BCE-13 AD Lugdunum [Lyons] Mint. Obv. Laureate head right, CAESAR AVGVSTVS DIVI F PATER PATRIAE/ Rev. Gaius & Lucius standing front, each with a hand resting on a round shield, a spear, & in field above, a lituus [curved augural staff] right & simpulum [ladle] left [in "b9"-like formation], AVGVSTI F COS DESIG PRINC IVVENT; C L CAESARES below. RIC I 207, RSC I 43, Sear RCV I 1597, BMCRE 533. 18 mm., 3.9 g.



Tiberius AR Denarius, AD 18-35, Lugdunum (Lyons) Mint, “Tribute Penny.” Obv. TI CAESAR DIVI AVG AVGVSTVS, Laureate head right/ Rev. PONTIF MAXIM, Livia, as Pax, holding long sceptre & olive branch, seated right on throne with ornate legs, her feet resting on low footstool, single line below. RIC I 30, RSC II 16a, Sear RCV I 1763, Giard Lyon, group 4, 150 [see https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=tribute penny]. 19 mm., 3.82 g. Ex: Tom Cederlind Sale 86 (1989), 305; Ex: JMB collection; Ex: Kirk Davis, Cat # 72, Fall 2018, Lot 80.

 

my profile pic



Constantine I
A.D. 316
19x20mm 3.4gm
CONSTANTINVS AVG; bust left, laureate, cuirassed and raising right hand.
SOLI INVIC-TO COMITI; Sol rad., raising r. hand, globe in l.; stg. l., chlamys across l. shoulder. A/S across fields.
in ex. PLG
RIC VII Lyons --; Bastien 605

 

Another Nero Lugdunum As:


Nero portrait facing left
RIC Vol. I, NERO, As, Lugdunum, No. 544

 

Roman coins from the first century might be from Lugdunum, but they don't say so explicitly. It took scholars a lot of work to try to determine whether first century pieces were minted in Rome or Lugdunum. It is not like the coins are clearly mintmarked. Now we look it up in books and think knowing is easy. It isn't.

However, much later, in the late third century, mints were distinguished by mintmarks. Aurelian has coins from Serdica marked "SERD" in exergue. Post-reform coins under the First Tetrarchy have more-or-less explicit mintmarks. (Of course, provincial coins regularly named the mint city.)

Here is a mintmark that is a bit surprising for being fairly explicit even before the First Tetrarchy. You know the coin is from Lugdunum:



Numerian, 282-284, as Augustus, Feb/March 283 to November 284.
PIETAS AVGG
LVG in exergue
RIC V.II 396 Lugdunum.

This mintmark is shared with his brother, Carinus, but not with his father Carus, so the time interval of issue can probably be narrowed down to after the death of Carus c. autumn 283.

 

Do you happen to know why the so-called Tribute Pennies of Tiberius are believed to have been minted in Lugdunum?

 

According to Sutherland, the ancient author Strabo and inscriptions attest that Lugdunum was the site of Augustus's chief mint for gold and silver. Rome handled copper and had been closed from c. 40 BC (in favor of imperatorial traveling mints) to c. 23 BC. There are several minor mints. Sutherland says the main precious-metal mint, Lugdunum, was transferred to Rome under Gaius (Caligula) and all the Rome coinage of Tiberius was aes.

The arguments for these attributions are complicated.

 

Thanks. So according to Sutherland, all or most denarii of Augustus and Tiberius were minted in Lugdunum?

 

For Tiberius, Lugdunum minted all the denarii. There are other mints for Augustus, especially early on, like Emerita in Lusitania, and several unidentified mints including two more in Spain, one in Italy, perhaps Brundisium, Rome with some gold and silver c. 19-12 BC, and up to eight others not yet identified. But, Lugdunum minted most of the silver for Augustus. This is according to RIC I, page 5ff.

 

I noticed coins from Lugdunum share the same portrait style for many rulers. This points towards an engraver who had a long career at the mint, making dies for multiple rulers and their families. Check out this coin of Fausta, which has the same portrait style as yours:

Fausta
AE Follis

324 - 325 A.D., Lugdunum Mint, 1st Officina
3.180g, 20.1mm, 12H

Obverse: FLAV • MAX • FAVSTA AVG,
Bust of Fausta, waved hair, mantled, right

Reverse: SALVS REI-PVBLICAE,
Salus, veiled, draped, standing front, head left, holding two children in her arms

Exergue: -/-//PLG


Provenance: Ex. CNG Electronic Auction 456, Lot 751 (part of), Ex. Forum Ancient Coins

Reference: RIC VII Lugdunum 235