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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Ocatarinetabellatchitchix, post: 5139585, member: 99554&quot;]Julian of Pannonia: another usurper I won&#039;t have soon in my collection. His coins are rarely sold for less than 1000 $. But it is certainly one of the least known of all &quot;Emperors&quot;. Let&#039;s talk about his history and coinage.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>The history</b></p><p>From the usurper <b>Julian</b>, we only know from literary sources what Aurelius Victor, Polemius Silvus and also the Byzantine historian Zosimus tell us about him. Zosimus and the Epitome indicate that Julian&#039;s rebellion began with the news of the death of Co-Emperor Numerian in December 284 AD, a few days after Diocletian had wear the purple on his side at Nicomedia. <b>Julianus</b> was a corrector (governor) in Veneto and Istria. He took up arms against the Emperor Carin in the Pannonian region. Perhaps he was hoping for an alliance with Diocletian who, upon Numerian&#039;s death, had been acclaimed emperor by the army of the East and was already at war with Carinus. He passed through Italy with his troops and Carinus, coming from Brittany, walked to meet him, defeated him without difficulty and had Julian slaughtered. His short reign lasted only about 6 months, until May 285 AD.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>The coinage</b></p><p>All the coins minted by <b>Julian</b> are gold aurei and antoniniani produced in Siscia, the only mint under his control during his reign. An exhaustive analyse of his coinage , which is described in the RIC as &quot;scarce, but less rare than those of the other unsuccessful rebels except Macrianus and Quietus&quot;, revealed that 33 aurei and 123 aureliani have been listed in the great Collections and in different sale&#039;s catalog. First let&#039;s talk about the mint: the Siscia workshop was operational since 259 AD during the reign of Gallienus. It was created&nbsp; to replace the veteran Lugdunum mint, in Gaul, which had fallen into possession of the usurper Postumus. Its main mission was always to supply numerary to the Danube border troops, for which it minted coins in the three metals. The coinage of <b>Julian</b> is of exceptional quality for an almost unknown usurper: many thanks to the skilled mint workers and the experienced die engravers in the Siscia mint ! </p><p><br /></p><p>The aurei (RIC 1), featuring the unique type LIBERTAS PVBLICA, send a propaganda message that makes Julian a liberator compared to the tyranny of Carinus. There are two different groups of aurei, with or without a star, the favorite symbol of the Siscia&#039;s workshop; 24 of the 33 are marked with a star. The last five specimens that were sold in auctions averaged 48,000 USD.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1205829[/ATTACH]</p><p>The three officinaes in service in Siscia since the end of the reign of Probus sign their product with a Greek number and each of them struck a type of its own. Officinae A emits a VICTORIA AVG type (RIC 5) which appears in two variants; Victory walking or Victory standing. Officina B, meanwhile, minted the FELICITAS TEMPORVM reverse type (RIC 2). </p><p><img src="https://www.numisbids.com/sales/hosted/gorny/273/image00581.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> </p><p>This specimen sold yesterday ( Nov. 19) for 3400 EUR. (Gorny &amp; Mosch)</p><p><br /></p><p>The most interesting and also the less common type is that of officina Γ; the two Pannoniae, PANNONIAE AVG (RIC 4), referring to the 2 provinces controlled by Julian and his army. This type had been introduced by Emperor Trajan Decius and especially allowed Julian to present himself as the legitimate successor of Probus despite the short dynasty of Carus and his sons. But where is the RIC 3, described as a IOVI CONSERVAT type ? It&#039;s an unsolved mystery ! The RIC obviously took its information from Cohen, who listed in 1892 four different types of reverses, including the IOVI CONSERVAT one.</p><p>COHEN:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1205836[/ATTACH]</p><p>Roman Imperial Coinage:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1205837[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;Eckhel, however, listed one type of aureus and three types of antoniniani in 1790. Is it possible that during the century which separated the numismatists Eckhel and Cohen, a new type of reverse was discovered and finally found in the Rollin collection? If so, why has this specimen never been seen for the past 130 years ? In my humble opinion there are three possibilities :</p><p><br /></p><ul> <li>The coin really existed and was lost or is simply in a private numismatic collection.</li> <li>The IOVI CONSERVAT Antoninianus was a forgery. Even Cohen admitted and wrote that in his time a counterfeit produced by the famous forger Becker was already in circulation. It did of course refer to an aureus, but perhaps copies of Antoniniani were also made.</li> </ul><p>[ATTACH=full]1205830[/ATTACH] </p><p>An aureus by Becker</p><p><br /></p><ul> <li>The hypothesis has also been put forward that the attribution of the obverse of a coin of Julian was in fact an incorrect reading of a very worn example of Diocletian, who minted coins in 286 AD in Siscia. I have to admit that the two portraits really look alike, but it&#039;s hard to accept that Cohen made a mistake on the obverse legend and also on the reverse one since I don&#039;t think that Diocletian ever struck antoniniani with the IOVI CONSERVAT reverse legend...</li> </ul><p>Now it&#039;s time to show off our coins. I can only offer you an example of Carinus and one of Diocletian, who both played an important role in Julian&#039;s short reign. I remember that [USER=103829]@Jochen1[/USER] has an example of this usurper, but perhaps other members own one ? <b>Please show us your coins of Julian I, Carinus, Diocletian or of the famous Siscia mint !</b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>[ATTACH=full]1205827[/ATTACH] </b></p><p><b>[ATTACH=full]1205828[/ATTACH] </b>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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