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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Finn235, post: 3308643, member: 98035&quot;]Had this coin for a couple years now, but figured you guys &amp; gals would get a kick out of it</p><p><br /></p><p>Gallienus AE Antoninianus</p><p>GALLIENVS AVG, radiate bust right</p><p>DIANAE CONS AVG, stag walking left, <b>cross in exergue </b>(actually a slanted X)</p><p>Rome mint, 10th officina</p><p>RIC 179 (var left, X)</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>[ATTACH=full]876608[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Occam&#039;s razor states that between the possibilities that a die engraver working in the mint at Rome was a Christian and wanted to send a message to other Christians in hiding, or that the engraver accidentally didn&#039;t slant an X correctly, odds are that the engraver just didn&#039;t slant the X correctly. Still, this coin hails from an era when Christians were taking the brunt of the blame for the empire&#039;s hardships merely by their presence, so putting a cross on *any* coin, let alone one begging a pagan goddess for protection, would have been a hasty death sentence.</p><p><br /></p><p>Interestingly, I don&#039;t think I have ever seen another example with the X slanted as a cross. Comments and coins welcome![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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