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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Julius Germanicus, post: 3382150, member: 80783&quot;]That is a neat specimen with a large flan and rather complete legends - something rarely seen! Here is mine - with sideburns, but also from the first emission of Gallienus and Valerian in 253 aD:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]898182[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>I like the copper tone on the OP coin! It would make a nice companion piece to my Valerian. The Roman mint was still able to produce full and round Sestertius flans at the beginning of the joint reign:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]898181[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>But more often they did not care, as we can see on my rather squarish Mariniana:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]898183[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>From then on, both production numbers of imperial bronzes and quality control at the roman mint went down rapidly. While Sestertii of Valerian Junior and even Saloninus do exist, they are very rare, weight only 12-15 grams and rare mostly in a deplorable state due to inferior metal being used. The same basically applies to Sestertii of Valerian and Gallienus of the mid-to late 250s, when the copper available was needed for the mass production of billon Antoniniani.</p><p><br /></p><p>It was Postumus in Gaul who resurrected the Sestertius in 260 and produced enormous numbers of greatly varying quality until 262. While many look outright barbaric, some are of better style than the contemporary works of the roman mint:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]898185[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Meanwhile at Rome the production of Sestertii from the beginning of the sole reign of Gallienus was basically restricted to presentation pieces, like this 263 aD specimen of Salonina for which a Medallion die was used for the obverse (weight is down to 11,64 grams):</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]898184[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Sestertius production at Rome was discontinued altogether in 264 aD.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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