Rare “Double Aureus”

Sale: CNG 76, Lot: 1608. Estimate $2000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 12 September 2007.  Sold For $3400. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Gallienus. AD 253-268. AV “Double Aureus” (2.23 g, 6h). Siscia mint. 3rd emission, AD 266-267. GALLIENVS AVG, Radiate head right / AEQVIT AVG, Aequitas standing left, holding scales and cornucopia. RIC V -; MIR 36, 1424a = E. Cocchi Ercolani, Catalogo della collezione numismatica di Carlo Piancastelli. Monetazione romana imperiale, 253-305 d.C. (Forlì: 1974), 98; Calicó -. Good VF, wavy flan, lightly struck from antoninianus dies. Extremely rare, the second known.

From the Alain Lagrange Collection.

Göbl (MIR 36) records only the Piancastelli example (weighing 2.20 grams) of this exceptionally rare issue, which he calls a double aureus. More examples of these lightweight radiate gold coins have come to light from the reign of Gallienus’ successor, Claudius II (cf. Leu 93, lot 97), which are typically called “light aurei.” With so few examples extant today, it is uncertain why the radiate crown was used, and why these were struck on such light flans.