Numismatic Anti-Christian Propaganda

448, Lot: 528. Estimate $100. Sold for $380. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

temp. Maximinus II. AD 310-313. Æ Follis (19mm, 1.56 g, 12h). Antioch mint, 2nd officina. GENIO CI VITATIS, turreted, veiled, and draped bust of Tyche right / APOLLONI SANCTO, Apollo standing left, holding patera and lyre; -|B//SMA. Van Heesch, Last 4 (pl. 11, 4). Green patina, reddish earthen encrustation, slight bend at edge. VF. Rare.

Van Heesch says about these “Persecution” Folles in this study The Last Civic Coinages and the Religious Policy of Maximinus Daza (AD 312) in NC 153 (1993) that, “These coins, on which the imperial portrait was replaced by images of the ancient immortal gods, were intended as anti-Christian propaganda. They constitute one of the rare direct and official documents concerning the religious policy of Maximinus Daza” (p. 75).