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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Claudius_Gothicus, post: 5176012, member: 116315&quot;]Claudius II is certainly a well known emperor, and his antoniniani are usually cheap and plentiful; however, his coinage also includes quite a few special types that are rarely talked about and seldomly offered at auction. The fact that his coinage, and that of other emperors of the Crisis of the Third Century, is, in my opinion, underappreciated, is one of the factors that convinced me to specialize in this area of Roman coinage. While my collection is certainly still very small and miserable, having only started collecting a few months ago and on a strict budget, it does contain a coin that is very dear to me, which I picked up a short while ago.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1211692[/ATTACH]</p><p>Claudius II (268-270), Antoninianus, Siscia mint, 4th emission (Late 270), 1st officina</p><p><br /></p><p>Obverse: IMP CLAVDIVS AVG, radiate, cuirassed bust right, seen from the front;</p><p><br /></p><p>Reverse: P M T-R P COS P P, Apollo seated left, resting his left arm on a lyre and holding an olive branch in his right hand; P in exergue.</p><p><br /></p><p>RIC V online 770, Minster 271, La Venera 9728</p><p><br /></p><p>First of all, as far as coins of Claudius II go, this example is very nice: while it isn&#039;t perfectly centered, not only was it struck on a flan of good size, but it is also barely circulated and, as a result, retained most of its silvering, which unfortunately made it quite difficult to photograph well.</p><p><br /></p><p>However, what&#039;s truly special about this coin is its reverse, which is not only very rare (mine appears to be the fifth known example) but also significant for two reasons: firstly, despite having been struck during the emperor&#039;s final year, it features a &quot;generic&quot; legend, when the accurate one would have been &quot;P M TR P III COS P P&quot;, since Claudius was in his third and final Tribunicia Potestas; secondly, as far as I know, this is the penultimate appearence of the &quot;seated Apollo&quot; reverse (it also featured on some very rare aurei of Aurelian), a design which I believe was introduced on Imperial Roman coinage by Caracalla and frequently appeared on coins of Gordian III and other third-century emperors. So, overall, I am very pleased with this coin, which is undoubtedly my favourite and the star of my newborn collection.</p><p><br /></p><p>Share your dated antoniniani of Claudius II, your coins featuring a seated Apollo or anything else you feel is relevant.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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