354, Lot: 579. Estimate $75. Sold for $65. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Victorinus. Romano-Gallic Emperor, AD 269-271. Antoninianus (18mm, 2.34 g, 12h). Treveri (Trier) mint. 3rd emission, 2nd phase, early-mid AD 270. Radiate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / Sol standing left, raising hand and holding whip; star to left. RIC V 114; Mairat 257-60; AGK 9b. Near EF, dark brown patina.

Victorinus hailed from a wealthy Gallic family, serving in the army and eventually becoming praetorian tribune and consul of the Gallic Empire under Postumus. Assuming the purple after the murder of Postumus, Victorinus initially met with limited support. The province of Hispania broke away, returning to the fold of the central Roman Empire, while southern Gaul threatened to do the same. Victorinus managed to hold onto Gaul only to meet his death a few years later, at the hands of a jealous general whose wife he was rumored to have seduced.