Among the Finest Known

Sale: Triton X, Lot: 736. Estimate $10000.  Closing Date: Monday, 8 January 2007.  Sold For $17000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Regalianus. Usurper, AD 260. AR Antoninianus (3.33 g, 11h). Carnuntum mint. IMP C P C REGALIAN[VS AVG], Radiate and draped bust right / PROV[IDENTIA AV]GG, Providentia standing facing, head left, holding in right hand grain ears over a modius to left, and cradling cornucopia in left arm. RIC V 8; MIR 43, 1714a (same dies as illustration); RSC 5. EF for issue. Overstruck on a denarius of Caracalla or Elagabalus (...ANTONINVS... and back of portrait are visible on the obverse, ...TR P...COS... is visible on the reverse). Extremely rare, and one of the finest known.

Following the capture of Valerian I by the Persians, a number of usurpations occurred throughout the empire. In Illyricum, one of Valerian’s generals, Cornelius Publius Caius Regalianus, seized power, but was killed by his own troops after a very short reign. All of Regalianus’ coinage has been attributed to a mint in Carnuntum (on the Danube between modern Hainburg and Bratislava in Hungary). It was obviously struck in great haste as evidenced by the relatively crude style and the fact that his known coins are all overstruck on other coins.