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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;John Anthony, post: 1818710, member: 42773&quot;]I acquired a lot of six Romans recently, so I’ll post them one-a-day in this thread. These are fairly common issues, but a few coins have numismatic interest beyond their lack of aesthetic appeal and/or rarity. The first is Gallienus...</p><p><br /></p><p>1. Gallienus, c. 218 - 268</p><p>AE Antoninianus, Rome mint, 268 AD</p><p>Obv.: GALLIENVS AVG; Radiate bust right</p><p>Rev.: P M TR P XVI COS VII; Emperor standing left, holding globe and sceptre</p><p>Reference: RIC V(a) Gallienus Sole Rule 156 (p. 144)</p><p><br /></p><p>The first thing I liked about this scrappy coin was the artistically-engraved, life-like portrait. Everything else about it is typical of the lack of quality control in the late coinage of Gallienus: a poorly-trimmed flan and a weak, off-center strike. But the portrait is one of the finest I’ve seen on any of the antoniniani of Gallienus, and oddly incongruent with the rest of the coin. Also, I don’t see any wear, so I grade it MS15. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie2" alt=";)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>The second interesting facet of this coin is that it’s the very last in the series of dated coins. TR P XVI COS VII dates it to 268, the year of the emperor’s death. Collectors are always cautioned not to take RIC rarity values as anything more than the analysis of a small sample, and that advice is usually given when someone thinks they have a rare and valuable coin. But in this case, RIC rates the coin as common - and yet, I can’t find any others. I’ve came across a few of the prior year with the legend TR P XV, but none from 268. If anyone has another example, I’d like to see it. (They’re probably all sitting in junk bins.)</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://postimage.org/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://postimage.org/" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://s14.postimg.org/jncsv2wc1/gallienus.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></a>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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