Sale: CNG 67, Lot: 1724. Estimate $3000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 22 September 2004.  Sold For $3725. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

GALLIENUS. 253-268 AD. AV Aureus (3.05 gm). Rome mint. Struck circa 253-254 AD. Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / Libertas standing left, holding pileus and vertical sceptre. RIC V 85 var. (laureate head); MIR 36 -; Hunter -; Calicó 2549 var. (same); Cohen 597 var. (same). VF, scratch in obverse field, a few die breaks. Extremely rare. ($3000)

From the Garth R. Drewry Collection.

The sole coin all sources reference is the Cohen specimen, and as errors are not uncommon with that work, it is possible that the obverse of that coin is also draped and cuirassed. The Libertas reverse type does not occur in the early issues of the join reign of Valerian and Gallienus, and Göbl does not list it in his corpus (MIR 36). Nonetheless, Göbl does note a number of hybrid pieces in the first issue at Rome that employ reverse dies of the previous two reigns (MIR 36, pg. 79). Libertas was a major type used under the joint reign of Trebonianus Gallus and Volusian, and thus this and the Cohen coin are probably hybrids using one of these reverse dies.