I just completed gathering all coins of Victorinus' first issue in the workshop of Cologne. I consider each emission as a "sub-collection" in itself, and trying to find and adding coins to finish it and move on to the next step of the collection is very thrilling. A Mosaic with the name Victorinus found in Treveri As for Treveri, the first coins minted at Cologne in the name of Victorinus do not bear a true portrait on the obverse. During issue 1, c. end 269 AD, two classic reverse types were employed: AEQVITAS AVG, introduced by Marius at the very end of his reign, and SALVS AVG, a new reverse type depicting Salus. The design was used already under Postumus and its meaning is probably very general, on the general welfare brought by Victorinus. They can be divided into two subtypes, one with the portrait of Marius and the other with that of Victorinus, and also two different bust types were used by the engravers. Mint II is experiencing its most intensive striking period since it opened under Postumus. During the reign of Victorinus, we denote at least 5 issues. They start, as for Treveri, with a longer obverse legend IMP C PI VICTORINVS AVG. Note also the absence of the letters PF (Pius Felix), a characteristic unique for the first issue of this monetary workshop. So here are the 5 "types" of the first issue: PORTRAIT OF MARIUS Bust A AEQVITAS AVG 20mm 2.44g Bust B AEQVITAS AVG 19mm 3.10g SALVS AVG 20mm. 2.81g PORTRAIT OF VICTORINUS Bust B AEQVITAS AVG 19mm 3.02g SALVS AVG 19mm 3.00g Please tell us about your sub-collections, completed or not, and if you fell like it, SHOW US YOUR COINS !
That's a great sub-collection. I have so many "sub-collections" that I am not even sure they could be considered sub-collections at this point.
Dominic, That's a great looking group of coins ! I guess you could call the 4 coins pictured below a "sub-group" or family group of: Philip I, Otacilia Severa, Philip II as Caesar, and as Augustus. All coins struck from the Antioch, Syria Mint.
Yes but what I see is a sub-sub group consisting of the rarities from the sub group lacking the common things that make the rarities rare by comparison. I assume the common ones also come in slabable MS grades so it would be possible to assemble a 'set' if that is the desire. Has anyone suggested a meaning for any of these variations other than the MON VRB group? Were the bust variations just random?
Doug, I didn't select my 4 coins because of rarity, I selected them because they appealed to me aesthetically. The coin of Philip I is by no means rare as a type, but high grade examples are selling for high prices. I could easily have selected a rarity of Philip I, like the coin pictured below. Despite the Antioch Mint being the longest running mint in history, about 1,000 years, we have no mint records to look at . This is due no doubt to the continuous state of warfare in that region, the earthquakes, & the mint being sacked by the Persians. So will we ever know why different design types were selected , probably not...
Nice coins! I have an unhealthy amount of Victorinus coins, but here are the ones I have pictures of! PAX AVG SALTS AVG (sic!). Maybe just a clogged die + wear The next two are very recent eBay purchases AEQVITAS AVG FIDES MILITVM (surprisingly scarce)
Mine is the same PROVIDENTIA AVG reverse but has the obverse honoring his consecration. Most people did not see Victorinus as god material but one of the most powerful people in Rome that week was his mother and she arranged for these DIVO VICTORINO PIO coins. Of the emperors who had DIVO coins, Victorinus may not be the finest but he was not the worst either. I regret never being able to take a decent photo of the reverse of this coin (is it me or the coin???). I would prefer one of the other reverse with CONSECRATIO but this is what found me.
..idk....is this the mug of Marius?....or is it Victorinus..or does his hairdresser only know for sure
I'm always down for a good Vicky. My rarest and best quality: Fides Militvm is always difficult to find. Oddly, Victoria isn't super common either. If Fides is hard to find, and intact silvering is hard to find, how about intact silvering on a Fides? This one has the super-long legend IMP C PIAV VICTORINVS PF AVG.
Here's a sub-sub-sub-collection I completed just today! The various hairstyles and headgear on the IVNO standing with peacock denarii of Faustina II: Beckmann type 7 hairstyle with strand of pearls. I got this one from @Victor_Clark. This type 9 hairstyle with the stephane is very scarce. I busted it out of a slab the minute it arrived in the mail from a Stack's auction. (The type 8 hairstyle was only used on aurei; it's not missing from my collection of denarii). This one I just won at today's Savoca Blue. It shows the type 9 hairstyle without the stephane. And this one shows the type 10 hairstyle, which she wore at the time of her death in AD 175. This one came from a Zeus auction earlier this year.
This is a pretty cool sub collection RC. I told you before, but your whole Faustina's collection should be put in a book one day, along with all your friday's threads on the Empress. I'll be the first buyer when you'll publish it.
There are plenty of ways to define a subset. It makes collecting interesting. One of my subsets is anchors on coins. I have a few and often see coins that are new to me. two cast anchors, one up and one down. All of these point up. I have a couple of RR Asses with anchors, but could not pass on this unsold lot. It arrived last week.
Great coins shown in this thread. I have quite a few coins of Victorinus. Here is a scarcer type that shows Victorinius' full name. IMP C M PIAVVONIVS VICTORINVS PF AVG // PAX AVG IMP C M PIAVVONIVS VICTORINVS PF AVG // FIDES MILITVM The name Piavvonius is typically abbreviated as PIAV or P or completely omitted. The next coin also looks common, but this bust type is very rare.
