So my absolute last coin purchase of the year was a few coins listed as "Claudius". I was the only bidder and ended up winning them at $20 or $5 a piece. One was an actual Claudius, my first, As with Minerva on the reverse. The other 3 were Claudius II antoniniai (sp?). The one that interested me the most was this one... The obverse is clearly of Claudius II, with the legend reading IMP CLAVDIVS AVG and the reverse says APOLLINI CONS. I looked on wildwinds and couldn't find a match so I expanded a bit. I did find some references on OCRE but none of them mentioned it being a mule. However, vcoins listed several coins with the Claudius II obverse and the Apollo reverse being a mule. His brother, Quintillus having had the Apollo reverse. I was just wondering if I was wrong in assuming this was a mule coin or no... All comments welcome.
I am unclear on how we are supposed to tell the last coins made on the last day of Claudius' reign from a mule using up left over obverse dies made after Claudius was gone. Either way, the coin is worth the $20 by itself. Are the light areas in the photo patches of silver? antoniniani Antoninus -ian (shows it belonged to) us i makes plural
There is a in RIC Claudius II with legend APOLLI CONS RIC V Claudius Gothicus 21 brother Quintillus has a APOLLINI CONS that looks like yours: RIC 9 I don't have an answer on the question of "mule" - it is an interesting coin and seems to be uncommon whether this name applies or not.
Your coin is considered a regular issue of Claudius II but was overlooked in the original edition of RIC. It is given the temporary number 503 in the revision-in-progress of RIC V. http://www.ric.mom.fr/en/search/quicksearch?q=503&page=1&mod=result
