When I was a kid, collecting US pennies and the like, and poring over the 1964 "Redbook" I would come upon coins that were so rare that instead of a price, all I would see is a line. To me that meant something mysterious, a coin I would never be able to buy, forgetting of course that something like 99.9% of the coins in the book were beyond my means - in those days collecting was going through hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of pennies - assuming I was lucky enough to find the pennies to go through. Of course for ancient coins the "line," meaning price, for an extremely rare coin is kind of meaningless - even a collector of modest means is quite capable of owning extremely rare, even unique coins. However, until I ended up with the coin that is the subject of this article I did not own a coin that would I ever call "line worthy" - even if its value doesn't approach the US coins in the Redbook whose price is designated by a line. This is an As of Clodius Albinus, as Augustus, struck in Lugdunum circa 196 AD, Reverse: FORTUNA REDVCI COS II, (weight and size to be provided) one of only two of this type discovered, and only the third As overall of which I am aware. (RIC 64). While silver denarii of Clodius Albinus struck at Lugdunum are readily available, the coin pictured is only the second - of which I am aware - ever discovered with this reverse. I have a photograph of an As of Clodius Albinus with a Victory reverse struck at Lugdunum, which is the third. Again - there may be others. The style of Clodius' coins as Augustus are readily identifiable and his portraiture, with the full rounded beard, bears no resemblance to the portraiture of the coins struck at Rome. In fact, at the time that RIC for Clodius Albinus was written, the British Museum held the only example of an As struck at Lugdunum, a die match for the coin pictured,and that was the situation for many years until the coin with the Victory reverse was discovered in the late 90's or early 2000's. I believe there was a discussion of the Victory coin on Moneta in the early 2000's but I have not viewed it, nor do I know anything about the coin other than the photograph. My coin came to me at the time of the great influx of ancient coins from Eastern Europe in the early to mid 2000's - a glorious time to collect ancient coins, as anyone who was there can attest - and was mixed in with a large lot of imperial bronzes. I recall posting a photograph of this coin on Moneta in the mid 2000's and Curtis Clay responding that perhaps one day a sestertius of Clodius Albinus from Lugdunum would be found. That would truly be spectacular, but to my knowledge the few As's are all there is. I assume that the striking of bronze coinage indicates a comfort in position - it says that the person striking the coin is so secure that he can not only take care of the troops with precious metals, he can provide bronze coins for the peasants as well. The most famous example is Otho, who never got around to striking bronze coins, despite having the Rome mint close at hand. If this is the reason for striking bronzes, then Clodius Albinus could not have been too comfortable since his issue of bronze coins must have been brief indeed. The FORTUNA reverse is an irony - since Clodius Albinus striking coins as Augustus were clearly a direct challenge to Septimius Severus. Perhaps the counterpart to this coin is the DESTINATO IMPERAT denarius of Caracalla, which left no doubt as to the intentions of Septimius with respect to who would succeed him - as with Vespasian, it would be his sons or no one, another ironic statement. I thought I would be able to write more about the historical context of this coin, but I just do not have the time - hopefully I can supplement this at a later date. But I am anxious to introduce the coin to collectors and view comments, and to hopefully find out if there are any other examples.
Wow, Blake, congratulations on this find! A great feeling to capture a "line" item! Big fun for you. Thanks for the informative write-up. Whelp, I don't have an As, so I reckon I am out! But, I do have a Denarius to show: RI Clodius Albinus 193-197 CE AR Denarius ROMAE AETERNAE Roma seated
Beautiful coin and a terrific counterpart that illustrates quite nicely the difference in portraiture between Lugdunum and Rome.
I have always wondered at the thought process that led to some of the Lugdunum coins including the name SEP even though using AVG would be an obviously inappropriate upgrade and considered a declaration of war. Didius Julianus had some SEVER coins which might be taken as an olive branch but it did him no good. I am wondering if there is any possibility that the Lugdunum coins were struck by the mint there without complete understanding of the situation or authorization by Albinus himself. I also find it interesting that this coin came from Eastern Europe since these coins would seem unlikely to have circulated much outside of Gaul. My only AVG denarius has no SEP. Completely inappropriate and unrelated story: About 40-50 years ago (?), a correspondent whose name I have forgotten sent me two black and white photo prints of the coin below. The other was the reverse. In 1997, I copied the obverse and added the color to make an illustration for my website grading page to illustrate 'tooled'. Today, I have no idea where the prints are but there are boxes in the attic that have not been touched since we moved in 2003 so I have hope that they still exist. I retain minimal hope that I will find them an the cover letter so I would know the source. The photo purports to be the only known as of Pescennius Niger. I expressed the opinion then that it was tooled from a Severan as. I still believe that. I would love to hear from anyone who has ever seen this coin or who was once offered it. I hope I was not wrong and was in any way party to its destruction.
Blake, As far as I know yours is the fourth known middle bronze of Albinus, since the BM has two FORTVNAE REDVCI examples, one very fine, acquired from Bourgey's Récamier sale of 1925, and illustrated in both BMC pl. 26.10 and RIC pl. IV.10; and a second, heavily corroded, whose acquisition is recorded in BMC p. 155, 622 note: "A second specimen from the same dies from excavations at Housesteads, presented by Dr. G.M. Trevelyan, 1969". The Victory coin you mention: Lanz Munich 14, 18 April 1978, lot 265, pl. 9. Found in Carnuntum, and from the same obv. die as the BM's two FORTVNAE REDVCI specimens (and so as yours), according to Lanz. The rev. shows Victory advancing right, but is corroded with the legend mostly gone; Lanz read ...AS... at 11 o'clock, perhaps originally [VICTORI]AE - [AVG COS II], Lanz's AS actually being AE. On my new chronology for the years 195-7, Albinus only ruled as Augustus from Nov.-Dec. 195 until 19 Feb. 196, since the Battle of Lugdunum took place on that date 19 Feb. 196, not 19 Feb. 197 as has been wrongly believed for hundreds of years! So all of Albinus' coins as Augustus were struck during that same short period of only 3-4 months. Of course it's impossible to know with certainty for what exact purpose those few asses were struck. One possibility would be for use as New Year's presents on 1 Jan. 196, since asses were a traditional Roman New Year's gift, and were regularly produced along with bronze medallions by the mint of Rome for that purpose in Dec. of each year; and Albinus may have wanted to follow the Roman custom. Maybe Albinus as Augustus produced some bronze medallions too for the same occasion, no specimens of which have yet come to light?
Thanks Curtis I knew that you would have comprehensive information on the other bronze coins of this type and from this mint - this will go in my scrap books along with your other comments on various coins I have received throughout the years. I know you have published various articles on Severan coins and other topics - is there any place on the internet where these are collected? I would love to have them in my books.
I have also wondered how this coin made it way to Eastern Europe and have no idea why - you are correct that the coins as Augustus were a declaration of war - although I should have reread my Cassius Dio before posting this, my recollection is that it was Clodius Albinus that was the first to strike at Septimius - perhaps he saw the handwriting on the wall. My mistake for not rereading the historical accounts before posting this, but I was so excited about putting the coin up. I cannot believe that coins of Albinus would be struck without his knowledge, but who knows? I am unaware of any ancient source that discusses an Emperor taking an interest in which coins are struck (are there any?) - it is reasonable to assume that the mint worked hand in glove with someone close to the one in charge. As for the purported Niger coin - I have seen this coin before and assumed it was a reworking of an As of Septimius. Has a comparison been made to the published asses of Septimius? Also I had forgotten that Niger had also never struck in bronze and should have included him among the "only silver" emperors or would be emperors. P.S. You might have noticed that the off topic opening was written in imitation of some of your articles. I have sent links to them to these pieces to countless new collectors who buy coins from me - by far the best intro to the hobby and a great resource.
We might point out there are Pescennius Niger AE in Provincials but his never controlling Rome made Imperials extremely unlikely. I do not have one but hope to find one someday. I understand there are Provincials of Albinus from three cities but what I have is from Pautalia. All I have seen listed were as Caesar before the split. That makes the Augustus as even more interesting. While I agree that a sestertius would be wonderful, I suspect the asses may have been made as presentation pieces rather than in full quantity for circulation so there may never have been sestertii. I hope I'm wrong. The workmanship/centering of your coin suggests it was not a 'business strike'. I have not seen the others. You are too kind. When Warren (Valentinian on CT) and I started our pages in 1997 (February for me anyway), there was a glaring lack of online material on ancient coins. I had an inexplicable desire to learn to code HTML so I used coins as a subject for my self-graded homework resulting in a new page every week for several years until I realized that the need had passed. Nothing makes me happier than to hear from people who found those pages of use. I abandoned the project but Warren is still at it. I hope you will point beginners to his as well.
Unfortunately I haven't published much, and the articles are not collected. Detailed summaries of some of my ideas, however, are available on Forum Ancient coins; search, for example, for "Battle of Lugdunum" and "Roman medallions".
Doug, I also am a student of those article you authored. A forum highlight for those of us new to the hobby. Something I have been meaning to thank you for!
