Extremely Rare Salonina Qunarius

442, Lot: 169. Estimate $750. Sold for $450. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Salonina. Augusta, AD 254-268. Quinarius (13mm, 1.47 g, 6h). Rome mint. 6th issue, AD 260-261. SALONINA AVG, diademed and draped bust right / PVDICITIAM, Pudicitia seated left, raising veil and holding sceptre. MIR 36, 434Bt corr. (obv. legend); RIC V (sole reign) 43; King 20. VF, porosity, areas of green and red encrustation. Extremely rare, only two noted by King (both in public collections, in Berlin [noted by MIR] and Budapest).

Bought from Spink, 1991.

MIR has coins of this type erroneously placed in Table 11 as 434Bt, which would have obverse legend CORNELIA SALONINA AVG. The illustration on Tafel 126 has SALONINA AVG, however. King lists just two specimens of this coin, in museum collections in Berlin and Budapest. The former is the coin illustrated in MIR, acquired from the Hamburger sale in 1925. The reverse legend of this coin unusually comprises the name in the accusative case – PVDICITIAM – possibly indicating that the accompanying figure depicts an actual statue in a temple.