Tetricus II as Augustus

CNG 105, Lot: 950. Estimate $300. Sold for $600. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Tetricus II. Romano-Gallic Emperor, AD 274. Æ Antoninianus (18mm, 2.32 g, 4h). Contemporary imitation(?). Uncertain mint in Gaul. IMIP (sic) TETRICVS AVG, radiate and draped bust right / C PIE TVS A I, Pietas standing facing, head left, holding long scepter. Apparently unpublished, but cf. RIC V 231, 236, 246, 250, and 253 for similar obverses naming Tetricus II as Augustus. Near EF, attractive brown surfaces. Extremely rare.

There is uncertainty whether Tetricus I elevated his son, Tetricus II, from Caesar to Augustus in the final days of their reign in AD 274. A coin identified by Sutherland (“An Unpublished Coin in the Name of Tetricus II,” MN XI [1964]) purports to be of Tetricus II as Augustus, but the authenticity of the coin, or whether it is a blundered imitation, is debatable. The present coin may be from the huge issues of barbarous radiates that were struck in Gaul and Britain in the late 3rd century and later. Although the issuers of these coins attempted to imitate authentic issues, a large portion are erroneous, most commonly as hybrids of obverses of one of the Tetrici appearing with reverses of the other. While the present coin has the obverse bust of Tetricus II, the legend may have been confused with that of Tetricus I. Regardless, the appearance of AVG on any coin of Tetricus II, official or barbarous, is extremely rare.