442, Lot: 161. Estimate $500. Sold for $700. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Gallienus. AD 253-268. Antoninianus (20mm, 2.93 g, 6h). Rome mint, 3rd officina. 6th issue, AD 260-261. GALLIENVM AVG SENATVS, radiate and cuirassed bust right / PAX AVG, Pax standing facing,head left, holding olive branch and transverse sceptre; T in left field. MIR 36, 401r (same dies as illustration); RIC V –. VF, brown patina, flan crack. Extremely rare, only one specimen noted by MIR (in the BM).

Ex Yves Günzenreiner Collection (Leu Numismatik 1, 25 October 2017), lot 334 (900 CHF).

This obverse legend is unusual, being translated as ‘the Senate [for] the emperor Gallienus’. It is more appropriately found, along with the related legend GALLIENVM AVG P R (the Roman people for the emperor Gallienus) on copper alloy offstrikes of gold multiples acknowledging imperial achievements, e.g. OB CONSERVATIONEM SALVTIS, or OB LIBERTATEM RECEPTAM (see MIR 563-5 and 567-8).