Mint of Mediolanum (Milan)

442, Lot: 317. Estimate $75. Sold for $75. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Lot of two (2) coins. 317a Gallienus. AD 253-268. Antoninianus (22.5mm, 3.67 g, 5h). Mediolanum (Milan) mint. Issue 1, AD 258-9. IMP GALLIENVS AVG, radiate head left / DIANA FELIX, Diana walking right, drawing arrow from quiver and holding bow; at her feet, hound or stag. MIR 36, 920h; RIC V (joint reign) 380; Cunetio 750. VF, toned, faint porosity, deposits.

Bought from Spink, 1983. Reportedly ex Duke of Argyll Collection.

317b Gallienus. AD 253-268. Antoninianus (25mm, 3.36 g, 1h). Mediolanum (Milan) mint. Issue 1, AD 258-9. IMP GALLIENVS AVG, radiate head left / VICTORIA AVGG, Victory standing facing, head turned left, wings outstretched, holding in both hands an unwound wreath / diadem; shield at her feet on either side. MIR 36, 921g; RIC V (joint reign) 405 var. (bust type); Cunetio 752-3 var. (same). VF/Good VF, toned, flan crack, areas of weak strike. Extremely rare, only one noted by MIR (in a private collection).

Ex Glendining’s (12 December 1990), lot 109 (part of).

This issue is unusual in that unclothed busts to the left are quite common, whereas those to the right are very rare.

. .

The date of the opening of the mint of Mediolanum (Milan), a matter for debate over many years, was stated by Göbl (MIR p. 100) to have been the second half of AD 258. Milan was the headquarters of the army units charged with defending Italy and Rome itself from invasion from the north, and of the rapidly mobile cavalry units established by Gallienus to aid in the defence of the imperial frontier. During the remainder of the joint reign of Valerian I and Gallienus coins in a number of denominations were struck in the names of both emperors as well as of Salonina and Saloninus, the latter having by now succeeded his late brother in the rank of Caesar (Issue 1). Some of these issues are quite common, and must have been struck in considerable numbers, but the range of reverse types is comparatively small.

Immediately after the capture of Valerian on the eastern frontier and the death of Saloninus at Cologne, coins with overwhelmingly military reverse types were struck at Milan for Gallienus (Issue 21). The small number of surviving specimens recorded in MIR would seem to suggest that the issue as a whole was relatively small. The well-known ‘legionary’ series of antoniniani (Issue 22) is now considered to have been contemporary with these earliest issues of the sole reign of Gallienus. (RIC placed them in the joint reign, strangely, despite there being no issues in the name of Valerian.) For the most recently published discussion of this issue, see King 1984. Those wishing to learn about the history of the various legions are referred to the most recent publication on the subject – Pollard and Berry (2012).

Issues 3-8, covering most of the rest of the sole reign, comprised an enormous range of different reverse types and of associated obverse bust types. (For the latter, see especially Doyen, ‘types iconographiques’, 1987.) In AD 267 coins were struck at Milan in the name of Postumus by the general Aureolus, who had rebelled against Gallienus.