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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Marsyas Mike, post: 3294240, member: 85693&quot;]I&#039;m no expert, so I am not making a definitive statement about patterns of debasement (or anything else) - but based on the coins in my (modest) collection, the Valerian/Gallienus era seemed to vary widely in metal quality, but not necessarily beginning/end of reign.&nbsp; This is just a collector&#039;s statement - a fairly inexperienced collector.&nbsp; I got my first Valerian in 2017, if that tells you anything! </p><p><br /></p><p>As for Postumus, he seems as erratic as Gallienus - although it is usually said that his early coins were fairly good (compared to Gallienus) silver.&nbsp; My recent Rhine River God issue is supposed to be &quot;early&quot; and it looks AE to me:</p><p>&nbsp;[ATTACH=full]871588[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>This SALVS reverse looks pretty fine silver to me (fine for the time anyway):</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]871589[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>But no doubt somebody has tested a bunch of these and have established patterns for dates/mints. </p><p><br /></p><p>As Gogigli1977 notes, the metal quality of Gordian III (for instance) seems to be much more reliable.&nbsp; In the Trajan Decius/Trebonianus Gallus era things seem to get much more flaky - again, this is based on my small, recent collection, but some of my Antioch (or generic eastern issues) from these emperors appear to be very debased, whereas the Rome issues are usually better.&nbsp; But I don&#039;t have enough coins to claim a &quot;pattern&quot; - my sample is so small it isn&#039;t safe to draw conclusions.&nbsp;&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Here is a Trebonianus Gallus I just posted elsewhere from Antioch - it appears to be quite debased. </p><p>[ATTACH=full]871591[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;m not sure I agree with Doug on the two Valerian ORIENTIS examples I showed - the silver/AE difference seems intrinsic to the coins, not based on things that happened afterwards.&nbsp; But Doug knows WAY MORE than I do about such things.&nbsp; The desert patina on the smaller one may be hiding a more silvery appearance (but I don&#039;t want to clean it). </p><p><br /></p><p>More experienced members could shed more light on this.&nbsp; Just a suggestion - I&#039;ve seen posts where the silver &quot;wash&quot; applied to Roman coins seems to cause confusion.&nbsp; I&#039;ve never seen a Valerian/Gallienus so treated - this seems to come later, around Aurelian or thereabouts.&nbsp; But again, I could be wrong.&nbsp; That third example in Gogili1977&#039;s post almost looks &quot;washed.&quot;[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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