Hi all! I was browsing eBay and came across this coin, which appears to be a decent style barbarous antoninianus of Tetricus I. It is described as having the reverse VICTORIAE AVGG (itself unlisted), but it appears there are more letters not on the flan. Is it possible this coin was copied from an antoninianus of Gallienus, with the VICTORIAE AVGG IT GERM reverse? The coins look incredibly similar If it is, I'm thinking of purchasing it. £30 is a lot for a barbarous radiate, but it would be cool to have a coin with such an obscure reverse. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
You are right about the attribution of the reverse. In my opinion, 30£ is worth it, it is a really interesting and fine specimen.
Pretty cool coin: sad you missed it. Here's my most "stylish" Victorinus. Notice the problems in the obverse legend and the reverse of Providentia...or Victoria ?!
The two coins are so well made that they could pass for official issues. I think these coins are not really imitations, let alone barbarous imitations. Instead, these coins were probably emergency money (Notgeld in German), that was issued to alleviate an acute shortage of small change during the hyperinflation of the time. The same happened in Germany in 1923. When hyperinflation exploded, smaller towns and regions and even companies started to print Notgeld (emergency money) to ensure that enough money was available to make payments. I think that the coins above circulated at par value with official mint products.
You shouldn't have mentioned thinking about buying it. Some other poster or lurker saw that it was available and snatched it up.
