Maximianus

Maximian went by a good handful of names and has a wide range of coinage from his reign, caesar for a short while and Augustus for the remainder of his time in the empire.
His reign lasted from July 285, to may first 305, and is believed to have resigned due to his co-emporer Diocletian coming down with a nearly fatal illness. Maximian and Diocletian's reigned together complimenting each other, with Maximian's military knowledge and Diocletian's political knowledge.

I do not know a great deal about Maximian, but that is the Beauty of collecting ancient coins, each piece lets you learn, and opens doorways to further your education into the ancient world.

Just read up a little bit more about Maximian and discovered he had tried to seize the throne as emperor again in 310, as Constantine had taken a small part of his army into enemy territory Maximian had stolen the throne and paid guards to protect him. Constantine had heard of Maximian's attempts and returned before defenses could be set up. Maximian had fled but Constantine had taken him prisoner and seized the city again. Though he was pardoned of his crimes this left a bad taste on Maximian's tongue and he was deeply humiliated, so much so that he set out with a plot to murder Constantine. The attempt failed, and soon after in July of 310 Maximian was dead. Whether he was murdered in retaliation of his attempt on Constantine, or he killed himself is unknown.

This was super fascinating to read and learn, the Roman Empire was truly a crazy time to be alive. I had purchased this coin and once again it opened a whole world of information and epic stories to learn. This is why I love collecting ancient coins!




Cyzicus, Rome
AE, AD 295-299
OBV: IMP C M A MAXIMIANVS F AVG
Radiate, draped and cuirassed bust right
REV: CONCORDIA MI_LITVM
Emperor standing right holding scepter and receiving victory on globe from Jupiter standing left, holding scepter
KB in center, Mint Cyzicus
Ref; RIC 016b, RCV 3639, Van Meter 045-


Post your Maximian coins! If anyone has any specific information on this reverse too I would love that! Very interested to see if anyone else has nice Max coins in their collection!

 

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It's good to see this coin has sparked your curiosity to research Maximian! It's a nice post-reform radiate. Although this article deals with the pre-reform issues with this reverse type, I think you'll find this paper by Saúl Roll-Vélez (AJN Second Series 26 (2014) pp. 223–243) interesting. It's available here.

Here's one of my pre-reform radiates:


Maximian, AD 286-308.
Roman Æ Antoninianus, 3.78 mm, 23.0 mm, 12 h.
Cyzicus, AD 293-294.
Obv: IMP C M A MAXIMIANVS AVG, radiate and draped bust right.
Rev: CONCORDIA MILITVM•, Emperor standing right, receiving Victory from Jupiter standing left; Г/XII•.
Refs: RIC 607; Cohen 53; RCV 13115; Roll-Vélez 9.

 

Nice coin! And I will definitely check the link out thank you!

 

Type: Follis, 26 mm 7.9 grams, A.D. 307

Obverse: Maximian Herculis, laureate and cuirassed bust facing right
DN MAXIMIANO PF AVG

Reverse: Genius standing left, modius on head, loins draped, chamlys over left shoulder, right hand holding patera, left hand holding cornucopiae
GENIO POP ROM

Mintmark: PLN (Londinium)

Reference: RIC VI London 85








This coin was kindly gifted to me by @jamesicus

 

@Roman Collector

What is pre-reform and post-reform? Is this before Maximian changed the Roman Empire, and after? I still have a lot of reading up to do!

 

My favorite coin of Maximian .


Maximian, c. AD 303, London Mint: Billon follis, 9.67 gm, RIC 25

 

Nice example!

 

Reform refers to Diocletian's currency reform of AD 294.

 

Ah, I will have to research that!

 

I don't think you'll ever see another large follis of Maximian with this much original silvering .

 

Yeah, that is a stunning coin! Is this one yours?

 

Great silvering on that coin @Al Kowsky !

 

Nice, @AdamsCollection !

My only Maximianus:


RI MAXIMIANUS HERCULIUS 286-305 CE antoninianus Antioch 292-295 CE Pre-Reform CONCORDIA MILITVM Jupiter RIC V 621 H-officina 8, ex: @TIF

 

I've had that coin for many years , & bought it from Harlan J. Berk. I had it slabbed to preserve the condition & color of the coin.

 

I don't know a lot about Maximianus' coins, but I have a couple. If you want to go beyond the Imperials, there are a lot of inexpensive Egyptian tetradrachms out there. Here are a couple I got in a lot for $10 recently:



Egypt Potin Tetradrachm
Maximianus
Year 5 (289/290 A.D.)
Alexandria Mint
A K M A OVA MAΞIMIANOC CEB, laur., dr. & cuir. bust right / Homonoia stg. l. holding branch & cornucopiae, star & EL left.
Milne 4939; BMC Alex. 2564;SNG Cop 1038
(8.77 grams / 17 mm)


Egypt Potin Tetradrachm
Maximianus
Year 4 (288/289 A.D.)
Alexandria Mint
[A K M OVA MAΞI]MIANOC CEB, laureate, draped & cuirassed bust right / Nike advancing left holding palm & wreath, Δ L left field, star behind.
Emmett 4148.
(8.40 grams / 18 mm)

 

Here's mine from Antioch with Jupiter on reverse. RIC VI-ANT-54b Delta.

 

..ah, so good to see the spark of interest in history from coins...very good @AdamsCollection, that' s what is all about to me... i''m having difficulty uploading pics so this is all ya get for now 9_9

 

We should note that whether or not Maximianus was ever Caesar but not yet Augustus (a matter of discussion), no coins were issued for him as Caesar but all coins with his name ending in Noble Caesar or an abbreviation of it belong to Galerius.
Galerius Caesar follis of Aquilea mint

 

...i was thinking there wuz sum kind o mix up there, cause i have a decent coin with a Galerius tag with it .. and it's got Maximianus's name on it.... good show Doug...(that dang tetrachy is a mother aint it"!)