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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Finn235, post: 3524526, member: 98035&quot;]Recent pick up from a bottom-of-the-barrel auction lot.</p><p><br /></p><p>Roman Empire</p><p>Aurelian, 270 - 275</p><p>AE pre-reform Antoninianus, Rome mint, 12th officina</p><p><b>17mm, 1.54g</b></p><p>Obv: (IMP CL DOM AURELIANVS AVG), Radiate draped bust right</p><p>Rev: (LAETITIA A)VG, Laetitia standing, holding wreath and anchor, XII right field</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]936181[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Humans, as with all omnivorous animals, have a streak of scavenger in our blood. Tonight is trash night, and my wife will give me her weekly eye-roll as I go for a midnight stroll to look for discarded treasures. I freely admit that in spite of my morals, my code of honor, and decades of social conditioning, holding a fat wad of $100 bills that isn&#039;t mine would send some dark thoughts murmuring up from my id. I have spent about half of my professional career gathering evidence that our project funding isn&#039;t going into a black box for Enron-esque budget skimming by execs and middle management.</p><p><br /></p><p>One such classic example comes from the mint in ancient Rome under the reigns of Claudius II, Quintillus, and Aurelian. The mint was under the supervision of one Felicissimus, who received periodic orders to debase the antoninianus yet again. Officially, by the death of Claudius II, it was about 2-3% silver and weighed about 2-3 grams. Who would miss a little silver at that point? </p><p><br /></p><p>Felicissimus, either by his own instruction or else gross incompetence, allowed the product of the Rome mint to slip well below officially tolerable levels. Silver was removed from the coin alloy, and went straight into pockets. This went largely ignored while Claudius struggled with the barbarian hordes, and Quintillus never even made it to Rome. Aurelian, however, caught word of what was transpiring and sought to make an example. What exactly transpired next is poorly documented, but Felicissimus was put to death for his crimes and the mint workers rose up in rebellion, probably aided by soldiers whose allegiance they had bought with their illicit profits. The result is that the mint at Rome was shut down for at least a couple years, and ancient sources estimate casualties just on Aurelian&#039;s side at about 7,000. Some believe that survivors of the rebellion fled from the city and set up shop elsewhere, making illegal DIVO CLAVDIO antoninianii of clearly barbarous fabric but otherwise good artistry and literacy.</p><p><br /></p><p>Post any coins you deem relevant![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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