Gallienus Billon Antoninianus. Asian mint. RIC 663 GALLIENVS AVG, radiate, draped bust right / VICTORIA AVG, Victory walking left, holding wreath and palm, star in exergue or in left field.
I also have a VICTORIA AVG III I just found this VICTORIA AVG VIII on Ebay. It was very very cheap, so I bought it. Does anybody know, what the letters T and S in the field next to Victoria stand for? Which victory does VICTORIA AVG VIII refer to?
My guess would be the standard officina numbering of P=Prima, S=Secunda, T=Tertia... but I have not verified this guess.
I just found the answer to my questin above: A. Alfoldi's booklet "The Victories of the Emperor Gallienus" (p. 40) states that VICTORIA AVG VIII "means nothing more nor less than the quelling of the rival Emperor Macrianus in the summer of 261". So VICTORIA III = overthrow of Regalianus; VICTORIA VIII = overthrow of Macrianus. Despite the numbering, Victoria VIII (spring 261) came before Victoria III (summer 261). Between the two issues, the counting of the victories was reset, so that: Victoria VIII of the first emission would be Victoria IV of the second emission (Macrianus). Victoria VII of the first emission became Victoria III of the second emission (Regalianus). Victoria VI of the first emission was Victoria II of the second emission (Ingenuus) and Victoria V of the first emission was Victoria I of the second emission (victory over the Alamanni at Milan). The resetting of the victories must have come by direct order of Gallienus, who refused victory titles that were awarded to him to propagate a clean break with the discredited regime of his father, according to Alfoldi. So between my two coins above, some kind of significant policy change has taken place.
That is an interesting booklet. I haven't had time to read the whole thing yet (3 kids) but I've skimmed it.
Perhaps you can assign that project to one of the coin collecting kids??? BTW did you notice that the Baltimore show is not held on Sunday this year? That may cause some dealers to leave even earlier Saturday than usual.
FFIVN is the only one who can read I'm not sure he has the attention span yet though. I did notice that the show has shifted to the left. I was planning on going up Saturday morning first thing with FFIVN but I'm worried that a lot of the dealers will already be gone.