402, Lot: 561. Estimate $75. Sold for $45. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Gallienus. AD 253-268. AR Antoninianus (23mm, 3.66 g, 12h). Colonia Agrippiensis (Colone) mint. 2nd emission, AD 258-259. Radiate and cuirassed bust right / Victory, holding wreath and palm frond, standing left, foot propped on captive seated left. RIC V 44 (Lugdunum); MIR 36, 893h; RSC 1061a. Good VF, slightly weak strike.

From the BRN Collection. Ex London Ancient Coins 38 (15 October 2014), lot 223.

This coin is from the second, and final, emission of Gallienus at Cologne, as the city was incorporated into the new Gallic Empire of Postumus in AD 260. The earliest issues of Postumus comprise two types, one featuring the personification of the Rhine river, while the other has a Victory reverse that is an exact copy of this issue of Gallienus. In fact, the style of the piece is identical, with the first portraits of Postumus being a near copy of Gallienus' appearance. As Drinkwater showed in his analysis of the Gallic Empire, Postumus' first mint was at Trier, and he surmised that the mint at Cologne was transferred there. Postumus did not open a mint at Cologne until AD 268. The choice of this type by Gallienus was to commemorate the victories of the Romans over the Germans. Ironically, these Romans were led by Postumus, and it was the latter's leadership that inspired his troops, and the local Roman nobility, to proclaim him as emperor in AD 260.