Unique?

405, Lot: 481. Estimate $100. Sold for $360. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Claudius II Gothicus. AD 268-270. Antoninianus (19mm, 3.25 g, 6h). Rome mint. 1st emission, circa October-November AD 268. IMP C M AVR CLAVDIVS P F AVG, radiate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / Emperor on horseback left, raising hand in salutation and holding scepter; –/–//–. Normanby –; RIC V –; RIC V Online 100 (this coin). Good VF, dark green patina. Extremely rare and possibly unique with this obverse legend. Currently the sole specimen listed by RIC Online.

From the Finn Johannessen Collection, purchased from José Manuel Serrano, 7 February 2005.

Coins with this obverse legend were first published by Hélène Huvelin (“Antoniniani de Claude II à titulature IMP C M AVR CLAVDIVS P F AVG frappés à l’atelier de Rome,” BSFN [1972], pp. 254-5). Bland and Burnett (Normanby p. 128) note that these coins belong “...at the very beginning of Claudius’s reign. It is a commonplace that at this period longer obverse legends generally precede shorter ones, and most emperors spelt out their names and titles in greatest detail on their first issue.”