Its a common type and not in finest condition, still... I liked it. Its 21mm and 2.13gr P.S. My first coin with this type of reverse(thats what I liked the best about the coin):
Yes, it would appear many are in poor condition, but better conditioned coins can be found such as my second coin below:
Educate me: What makes this Saloninus rather than Valerian II? http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/feac68sal.html
@dougsmit I buy coins locally, not via internet. The seller of the coin told me the coin was Valerian II. However as I still do not know enough about Rome and its emperors, I consulted wikipedia and wildwinds, coming to conclusion that Saloninus and Valerian II were the same guy. When I made search on this forum for Valerian II I got no results. When I searched for Saloninus here I got threads with similar coins as mine. In case I made a mistake I appologise and hopefully know better next time. I have no intention to educate anybody on the thread, especially not you. I am here to enjoy myself and to learn from everyone. Thanks
Unless someone has reworked the question since I studied it years ago, coins of older brother Valerian II lacked the name Saloninus as part of the legend but those of younger brother Saloninus always had SAL or more. I read your coin a P LIC VALERIAN...... which makes it Valerian II. Bing's second coin is definitely Saloninus with legend SALON VALERIANVS NOB CAES. His first one is not clear but strikes me as IMP C VALERIANVS making it Valerian II also. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerian_II https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saloninus
I was able to decipher legends before I posted and still got confused. OBV: PLICVALERIANSCAES REV: PIETAS AVGG Thanks for making it clear for me. Regards Miki
I was wrong about the second coin. It is Saloninus with legend starting SAL as on this one from acsearch: https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=65187 Eyes can play tricks when there is corrosion involved. The tip here that showed my error was the reverse for Saloninus used a standard held by the Prince PRINC IVVENT while all the ones for Valerian II I saw had a staff. That made me look again at the letters before VALERIAN and now I saw the SAL that eluded me before. I apologize to Bing and his coin. It is wrong to call a kid by his brother's name. For new collectors: I know we all tend to buy lower priced 'bargain' coins but it really is better to look for examples that have the major ID points clear and have the confusion located where there is only one choice. In many cases that means having clear legends at the left and not so much at the right where there are titles and name endings like NVS CS that might go either way. Even the nicer acsearch coin linked above is weak on the SAL. Compare it to the below Valerian II with PCLVALERIANVSNOBCAES. https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=48995 It has a weak strike that wipes out the reverse figure's upper body but those legends sure make ID easy.
