A rare Postumus Providentia

I've been rummaging through dozens of neglected mixed lot purchases and came upon this coin. Although @zumbly brought its rarity to my attention at the time, it still didn't capture my interest until further study this week.


Postumus, CE 259-268
antoninianus, 22 mm, 3.0 gm
struck CE 263 in Cologne
Obv: IMP C POSTVMVS P F AVG, radiate, draped, and cuirassed bust right
Rev: PROVIDENTIA AVG, Providentia standing left, leaning on a column, holding a scepter in her right hand and a cornucopiae in her left; at her feet to left, globe
Ref: RIC VII 81, Cologne; AGK (corr.) 70. Cunetio -. Elmer 334. Gilljam -.

The green spots are hard-- not powdery-- and haven't changed since purchase.

A note about its rarity from an auction listing (Obolos auction 1 by Nomos)

In the usual public databases I've found only five additional examples:

Wildwinds


ACsearch





None were found in CNG's archives. I have a couple dozen old auction catalogs and haven't looked there yet. Nonetheless, it does appear to be a truly rare type. Does anyone other than a Postumus specialist care though?

I wonder what message was being sent by striking this particular reverse in the year 263. Providentia, a personification of foretelling, providence, future-telling, and the like... perhaps to its use was to project confidence of a favorable outcome for his invasion of Germania?

...

Post your Postumuses. Postumuii. Postumusses. Whatever.

 

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Wow, that's an excellent piece you scored TIF!

 

I'm no specialist, but oooh, me so jealous!
Here's my common Postumus Providentia. I'm sure Hans Gilljam would not be impressed.



I think this coin may need a re-shoot. I don't recall that it was quite so.. yellow.

 

Postumus BI Antoninianus, Lyons, 260-269 AD, 2.4g, 22.0mm

OBV: IMP C POSTVMVS P F AVG, Radiate, draped & cuirassed bust right.

REV: HERC PACIFERO, Hercules standing right, holding olive branch & club.

REF: RIC V-II 67, RSC 101, Sear5 10946.

 

I bought one of the other Providentias last summer at the World's Fair of Money. At the time, I'd forgotten that I already had a Postumus (actually, two ).

I can't seem to get the color right. Yesterday all of my pictures were coming out too green/blue. I tried to fix it editing but need to just try again.


Postumus, 259-268 AD
antoninianus, 22.5 mm, 3.8 gm, Cologne
Obv: IMP C POSTVMVS P F AVG, radiate draped and cuirassed bust right
Rev: PROVIDENTIA AVG, Providentia standing left holding globe and transverse scepter
Ref: RIC V 323, Cologne (Not entirely certain of the mint or RIC number)

...and another from a mixed lot. The green is as hard and shiny as enamel. The relief and devices are a little clearer in person but again my photographic efforts have failed.

Postumus, 259-268 AD
antoninianus, 20 mm, 3.2 gm, Cologne
Obv:IMP C POSTVMVS PF AVG; Radiate, draped, and cuirassed bust right
Rev: ORIENS AVG; Sol walking left, raising hand and holding whip
Ref: RIC V 77, Cologne (again, not certain of mint and RIC number)
(edited; I had copied and pasted the wrong description )

...

I keep misspelling his name! I type Posthumus every time and have to correct it.

 

Postumus AE Antoninianus. Lugdunum mint. 2.9g, 23.3mm

OBV: IMP C POSTVMVS P F AVG, radiate bust right.

REV: PROVIDENTIA AVG, Providentia standing left, holding globe and transverse sceptre.

REF: Sear5 10979. RIC 80

This coin needs a reshoot because it's an old scanner photo. It's probably not going to look much better but it ain't bad.

 

Just imagine making that typo for "posthumous" coins, but writing Postumus instead. lol

 

What's even more strange is that the word my fingers autotype is incorrect for both the emperor and the word meaning "after death".

 

Nice coin but you hit on the question. I am not a Postumus specialist but I do have about 20 of his ants. I do not have this one so I might buy it if I found one cheap but it is not on my 'list' for him. The types that float my boat are not just rare but offer some feature of interest of difference. Providentia is a very common type - just not for Postumus. The coins I'd like are MINER FAVTR, INTERNVTIVS, COL CL AGRIP COS IIII --- strange stuff. Postumus has common types that are a bit unusual like HERC DEVSONIENSI and SERAPI COMITI AVG which I have and would not trade for a rare but uninteresting 'to me' type. Sure the Postumus specialist will want them all. I may even get them all by some accident but when it comes to paying extra for what I consider a low 'carity' rarity.... not gonna happen. Most I buy are just pretty. Wasn't he handsome? Aren't I shallow?

 

Yeah, that auto-correct for the board should help you realize hey, something ain't right here. lol

 

Shallow? I don't know, but perhaps biased...

 

Interesting, sorta reminds me of my issue with Lucilla. A boring standing god but actually rare & also gets ignored due to the god. With her it's Laetitia and Standing Concordia.

When you think of rare reverses, you think of types like my coin below or some other special reverse type, not a standing or sitting god.

This is my only postumus. Had another but I liked this reverse better.


Postumus (260 - 269 A.D.)
AR Antoninianus
O: IMP C POSTVMVS P F AVG, Radiate, draped, and cuirassed bust right.
R: FIDES EXERCITVS Four military standards, hand on top of second, eagle on third.
Lugdunum (Lyon) mint. Struck 266 A.D.
3.8g
20mm
RIC V 303; Cunetio 2432; Elmer 417; RSC 65

 

An observation about radiate crowns:

I wondered if these actually existed and if they were ever worn by emperors. Googling the question led to this opinion from numismatist Curtis Clay, expressed on another forum:

Looking at the coins posted today I noted another trivial detail. These crowns have ties at the back of the head Diadems were generally tied on, made either from strung pearls or thin and flexible gold. Crowns are rigid circular structures; no ties required. I've not noticed ties on radiates of other coins (although now I'm compelled to undertake a cursory survey). Why do some of these radiate crowns have ties? If they existed in real life, it seems likely that they would be fabricated as a fixed rigid crown rather than a flexible tie-on adornment.

 

I agree with Doug. Rarity is a weird little thing in ancients, no? I find desirability of the type to be the overarching price driver. Case in point, (on something you and I both participated in recently TIF), those lead tesserae CNG had. All of the Antinous pieces went for more than I paid for my two. Most of the Antinous pieces were known, so by definition more common supposedly than the two non-Antinous pieces I bought, which are unpublished. If rarity is the major concern, it should have been reversed. So, I view historical interest, beauty, and rarity to be a blended factor in pricing, with historical interest and beauty probably being more heavily weighted than rarity.

Of course, every "rule" has to have exceptions. The exception to this would be for those coins considered as part of some pre-designated "set", like the 12 Caesars, which puts unusual demands on Caesar and Otho, more so than otherwise would be there, (especially Otho and his bad wigs). So for a coin many consider a part of a "set", demand will always be excessive more than otherwise be the case.

The other new factor is slab material. I am seeing pretty, famous ancients going up considerably to be put in coffins and sold to those who just want a few pretty ancient coins. As thinly traded a market we have, this new demand is really driving up prices.

So, for your coin Tif, its a very pretty coin, (I especially love the reverse, which many times is struck horribly), and its extremely cool its very rare. However, its one of those "cool" things you truly have to be a geek like us here to appreciate, and I doubt it would raise the value of the coin more than 150%. Of course, that 150% is off a pretty high number to start with, since I consider your coin to be one of the nicest of his I have seen. Just my opinion.

 

Here is an interesting Postumus and my personal favorite type of his. Some say it's very rare, but I think scarce would be a more realistic assignment.

AE21mm 2.97g, PACATOR ORBIS, Elmer 599
(photo courtesy of SN Numismatik)

 

I've never seen that coin before, Seth. Nice one indeed.

 

Nice, never seen that type before.

 

All of this is interesting to know. It helps me focus when I search through coins.

 

Magic soup will take off that green mineral, no problem.

 

This coin is one of those odd instances where the handful of geeks wanting examples (or collecting them all) are well-heeled enough to drive the prices to between 10-20 times of the common variety. And she finds it tossed into a random mixed lot. Yeah, TIF is just lucky that way .