Sale: Triton X, Lot: 771. Estimate $3000.  Closing Date: Monday, 8 January 2007.  Sold For $1800. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Maximinus II. As Caesar, AD 305-309. AR Argenteus (3.23 g, 11h). Antioch mint, 8th officina. Struck AD 305. MAXIMI-NVS CAESAR, Laureate head right / VIRTVS MILITVM, camp gate of three turrets with open arch and no doors; *ANTH*. Unpublished, but cf. RIC VI p. 623, note = RSC 228†b for a Galerius argenteus from the same issue. Good VF, toned, a little porous. Unique.

RIC notes that although no argentei were apparently authorized for this period at Antioch, a single specimen of Galerius Augustus was issued with the same type and mintmark as the present coin, and was considered to have been struck “beyond official instructions.” The present piece suggests that a short official issue of argentei was, in fact, struck at the mint before the series was concluded.