442, Lot: 508. Estimate $100. Sold for $220. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Lot of three (3) coins. 508a Gallienus. AD 253-268. Antoninianus (22mm, 4.32 g, 6h). Antioch mint. Issues 11-12, AD 264-265. GALLIENVS AVG, radiate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / P M TR P XIII / C VI P P and palm branch in exergue, lion walking left; bull’s head on ground by its front feet. MIR 36, 1622c; RIC V (sole reign) 602; Cunetio –. VF, some silvering, minor roughness.

Bought from Seaby, 1986.

The titles in the reverse inscription date this coin to August AD 264 – August 265. Woods (forthcoming 2018, footnote 5) states that ‘rivalry between lion and bull was an ancient literary motif’, and gives examples from Homer’s Iliad.

508b Gallienus. AD 253-268. Antoninianus (24mm, 3.47 g, 12h). Antioch mint. Issues 11-12, AD 264-265. GALLIENVS AVG, radiate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / SAECVLARHS AVG (sic), stag standing right; palm branch in exergue. MIR 36, 1626d; RIC V (sole reign) 656 var. (rev. legend); Cunetio 1912 var. (bust type). VF, some silvering, minor roughness.

Bought from Spink, 1988.

The substitution of H (the Greek letter eta) for E in the reverse legend is not a die-sinking error but an example of an occasional practice in Roman inscriptions. The exact significance of this reverse is not entirely clear. Göbl (MIR p. 130) merely refers back to the assertion by Alföldi (1967, p. 159) that the coin marked the staging of saeculares (anniversary celebrations involving games), but Weigel (1990, p. 140) states that ‘there is no need to suggest that [Gallienus] … staged Secular Games, because the timing of his reign was not close enough to make even a bogus claim for hosting such games’. Manders (2012, p. 300) quotes this and continues that the coin type alludes ‘… perhaps to a major religious festival which took place late in [Gallienus’s] reign’. Both authors seek a connection with the ‘animal series’ at Rome, but these coins were struck several years later than this issue at Antioch.

508c Gallienus. AD 253-268. Antoninianus (21mm, 4.46 g, 5h). Antioch mint. Issues 11-12, AD 264-265. GALLIEN[V]S AVG, radiate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / AETERNITAS AVG, she-wolf standing right, suckling Romulus and Remus; palm branch in exergue. MIR 36, 1628c; RIC V (sole reign) 628 var. (bust type); Cunetio –. VF, some silvering.

Bought from Spink, 1990.

This association of AETERNITAS with the legend of the founding of Rome carries the message to the eastern provinces and the troops on the eastern frontier that the emperor will guarantee the longevity of the empire.

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