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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Blake Davis, post: 4570274, member: 91820&quot;]When I was a kid, collecting US pennies and the like, and poring over the 1964 &quot;Redbook&quot; 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.</p><p><br /></p><p>Of course for ancient coins the &quot;line,&quot;&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; 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 &quot;line worthy&quot; - even if its value doesn&#039;t approach the US coins in the Redbook whose price is designated by a line.</p><p><br /></p><p>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).&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; The style of Clodius&#039; 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.</p><p><br /></p><p>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&#039;s or early 2000&#039;s. I believe there was a discussion of the Victory coin on Moneta in the early 2000&#039;s but I have not viewed it, nor do I know anything about the coin other than the photograph.&nbsp; My coin came to me at the time of the great influx of ancient coins from Eastern Europe in the early to mid 2000&#039;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&#039;s and Curtis Clay responding that perhaps one day a sestertius of Clodius Albinus from Lugdunum would be found.&nbsp; That would truly be spectacular, but to my knowledge the few As&#039;s are all there is.</p><p><br /></p><p>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.&nbsp; The most famous example is Otho, who never got around to striking bronze coins, despite having the Rome mint close at hand.&nbsp; 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.</p><p><br /></p><p>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.&nbsp; But I am anxious to introduce the coin to collectors and view comments, and to hopefully find out if there are any other examples.[ATTACH=full]1131607[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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