General Aureolus coins in the name of Postumus

 

I was first alerted to the coinage of the Roman General Aureolus when I was given Clive Foss’ book, Roman Historical Coins, as a Christmas gift in 1990. Until that time I was unaware of the series of coins from the mint of Milan issued under his authority, albeit in another’s name.

Aureolus had been a military commander under the emperor Gallienus, commanding the equities, the newly formed mobile army established at Milan. He oversaw the victory over Macrinus as the Eastern usurper moved west and advanced on Italy.

With the Eastern empire secured Aureolus then moved with Gallienus against Postumus. Something ultimately went wrong between Aureolus and Gallienus and in 267 he chose to take the side of the long standing western usurper Postumus. Gallienus besieged Aureolus at Milan but was murdered before the campaign was completed. It was clear that Postumus was either ambivalent or unable to help his ally and he surrender to the successor of Gallienus, Claudius II. 

During his time in Milan, c. 267-8 AD, a series of base metal coins was struck by Aureolus in the name of Postumus. The mint name doesn't usually appear on coins of this period but the style is so distinct from the mainstream, coinage of Postumus. I have to say that I am somewhat sceptical of the extremely rare gold issues that exist in this series. Most, but not all, types honour the equites in the reverse legend.

The coins below are some of the examples of the small series from my trays:

1.	IMP POSTVMVS AVG Radiate, draped and cuirassed bust right VIRTVS AEQVIT -/-//- Virtus walking right holding spear and trophy Milan Mint, Issue 1 Cunetio -; Normanby 1355
2.	IMP POSTVMVS AVG Radiate, draped and cuirassed bust right FIDES EQVIT -/-//P Fides seated left holding patera and standard Milan Mint, Issue 3 Cunetio 2479-81
3.	IMP POSTVMVS AVG Radiate, draped and cuirassed bust right CONCORD EQVIT -/-//S Concordia left holding rudder Milan Mint, Issue 3 Cunetio 2483
4.	IMP POSTVMVS AVG Radiate, draped and cuirassed bust right VIRTVS EQVIT -/-//T Virtus walking right holding spear and shield Milan Mint, Issue 3 Cunetio 2485-7
5.	IMP C POSTVMVS PF AVG Radiate, draped and cuirassed bust right SALVS AVG -/-//P Aesculapius standing left holding staff with snake entwined Milan Mint, Issue 5 Cunetio 2496
6.	IMP C POSTVMVS PF AVG Radiate, draped and cuirassed bust right VIRTVS EQVITVM -/-//S Hercules standing right, arm behind back and resting on club on rocks Milan Mint, Issue 5 Cunetio 2497

 

The issues of Claudius II from the Antioch mint

 Writing up the description of a coin the other evening I realised that I did not know how the Antioch mint coins of Claudius II were arranged. The standard reference work Roman Imperial Coinage 5 part 1 does not go into such detail. I am familiar with the four issue arrangement at Rome where changes in both obverse legend and reverse type are employed to distinguish the series. Similarly I have access to many western hoard reports where the Western mints predominate and so have a reasonable working knowledge of Milan and Siscia too. With Antioch, however, that is not the case and the Eastern coins are scarce in Western contexts. For example the large antoninianus hoard from La Venera only had a single Antioch coin of Claudius II.

We are fortunate though to have the tentative reworking of RIC 5 part 1 by the Bibliotheque National to explore for the coins of Claudius II. It is from their work that it become quickly evident that, similar to Rome, there is a four issue or series arrangement during his relatively short reign 268-70AD.

The arrangement they use is much simpler than the arrangement at Rome and is based on the characteristics of the reverse type, although series 1 does apparently get split on the basis of obverse legend, the earliest coins having the longer imperial name as was then custom. Besides the four series grouping they also introduce a chronology for the series. The series are as follows:

Series 1, October 268 to end 269

The earliest coins have the obverse legend IMP C M AVR CLAVDIVS PF AVG, October to November 268; the later legend IMP C CLAVDIVS AVG running from late 268 to late 269. The later coins with the shorter obverse legend have an officina or workshop letter in the exergue on the reverse. From this it is apparent that there were 8 workshops operating at Antioch and each workshop numbered their products in Greek numerals.

Series 2, end 269 to early 270

The officina letters/numbers are replaced by a disc or large pellet. From now on it is not possible to distinguish what reverses are the product of which workshop.

Series 3, early to mid 270

The large pellet has gone and is replaced by nothing in the exergue. All the reverse types have a single standing figure.

Series 4, mid 270-end of reign (late summer 270)

Still no mark in the exergue, however, all the reverse types have two standing figures.

A new group of late Roman/Byzantine coin weights

Why is it that most of the old metal Scrabble tiles I come across are for the letter N? Only joking! I’ve just taken possession of another ten ancient weights, seven of which are late Roman or early Byzantine. The letter N, engraved or punched in and then occasionally filled with silver stands for nomisma, an ancient name for the gold solidus.

There is, however, in the group a new denomination for my weight collection and that is the top, circular, weight. That weighs a little over 2.2 grammes and is punched IB in dots. This indicates 12 siliquae keratia, or, in other words a gold half solidus known as a semissis.

There are three more ancient weights in the group, yet to be photographed, that are currently awaiting identification.

A Decursio sestertius of Nero

Towards the end of 2020 I was able to acquire a coin type that had been on my wish list for a long time but had always been out of reach, seemingly. The coin in question is a sestertius of the first century emperor Nero with the reverse legend DECVRSIO. There are a number of varieties of design, the one I picked up having Nero on horseback riding right with another soldier riding at his side.

Quite what is represented on the reverse of Nero’s Decursio coinage has been the subject of debate. Nero never led troops into battle and a military parade or exercises seems unlikely. Given his interest in the arts is is postulated that this is part of the performance of the lusus Troiae, a mock battle described in Virgil’s Aenid (V, 545-605) as the climax to the games commemorating the first anniversary of the death of Anchises.

My coin is a product of a Balkan mint, perhaps Perinthus, poorly documented and described in the revised RIC volume of the period and similarly treated in the appropriate RPC volume too. The Rome mint analogue is RIC 104. What suggests that this is a Balkan mint are the dimples in the centre of both the obverse and reverse of this coin, a common feature of provincial base metal mintages.

My early Victorian postmarks

During the lockdown last year I took the opportunity to photograph and catalogue my collection of machine tokens. This year I have taken the opportunity to work on a large number of early Victorian stamps to identify the postmarks.

There was a concern when stamps were introduced in 1840 that the stamp could continue to be used time and time again by the public, defrauding government coffers. To combat this methods were devised to “cancel” the stamp with a mark that would be unmistakable.

Initially the mark used was a Maltese cross, to start with red, later progressing to black (presumably as the stamps on sale changed from black to red, although other colours were used).

Later designs progressed to a date stamp usually on the letter and on the stamp itself a number in some form of design that designated a city, town or district.

My collection covers 1840 to 1870 and is only to be regarded as embryonic as many, many marks are still missing. The condition of the stamp is immaterial to me, what counts is the cancellation.