LEG II ITAL

442, Lot: 362. Estimate $500. Sold for $575. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Gallienus. AD 253-268. Antoninianus (22mm, 3.90 g, 6h). Mediolanum (Milan) mint. Issue 2(2), AD 260-1. GALLIENVS AVG, radiate and cuirassed bust right / LEG II ITAL V P V F, she-wolf standing left, suckling Romulus and Remus. MIR 36, 991An; RIC V –; Cunetio –. VF, lightly toned. Extremely rare, only one noted by MIR (uncertain disposition, but illustrated on Tafel 126 [Nachträge]).

Bought from Manton Associates, 1995.

All legionary antoniniani with V P V F reverses are very rare. MIR records just one specimen of LEG II ITAL, which the illustration confirms is from the same reverse die as this coin. On page 210 the location is given only as ‘Beleg verlegt’ (proof missing), and Thiry (2008, 72, note 50) elaborates on this, asserting that the coin is now lost. King (1984, p. 121) lists another, with military bust to left, in the collections of the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, but the photograph which purports to be of this coin (Pl. 1, no. 2) is actually of a coin with reverse LEG II PART V P V F. It is unclear, therefore, to which type the Paris coin actually belongs. This coin was published by Thiry (2013, 133, no. 1), and his table on page 134 stated that only two examples were known (MIR 991An and this coin). The table did not include the coin recorded by King. Another specimen, from the same obverse and reverse dies as this coin, formed lot 473 in the Mūnzen & Medaillen auction 43, 26 February 2016. It seems likely that only one reverse die was used for striking coins of this type.

Legio II Italica was of late foundation, recruited by Marcus Aurelius in AD 165 as storm clouds gathered on the Rhine and Danube frontiers. It was heavily engaged in the Marcomannic Wars of AD 166-180 and later fought in the Severan civil wars of AD 193-197. It remained loyal to Gallienus throughout his reign and was one of the few to receive three awards for “victorious dutiful loyalty” (V, VI and VII), as indicated on his legionary coins. Being raised in the vicinity of Rome, its symbols were the wolf and twins.