Mint of Viminacium

442, Lot: 275. Estimate $75. Sold for $110. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Lot of two (2) coins. 275a Valerian I. AD 253-260. Antoninianus (21mm, 2.90 g, 12h). Viminacium mint. Issue 1a. IMP P LIC VALERIANO AVG, radiate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / VICTORIA GERMANICA, Victory standing left, resting right hand on shield and holding palm; seated captive on ground to left. MIR 36, 793d; RIC V 264 (Milan); Chalfont 323 (this coin, illustrated); Cunetio 760. Good VF, toned.

Ex Glendining’s (7 July 1993), lot 15 (part of); Chalfont St. Peter, Buckinghamshire, Hoard (1989) [IRBCH 740A], no. 323.

275b Valerian I. AD 253-260. Antoninianus (23.5mm, 2.91 g, 6h). Viminacium mint. Issue 1b. IMP P LIC VALERIANO AVG, radiate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / VIRT[V]S AVGG, Virtus standing left, holding Victory in right hand, left hand resting on shield on ground and holding sceptre. MIR 36, 795d corr. (obv. legend); RIC V 270 (Milan), Cunetio – (but rev. as 770 of issue 2a). Good VF, wavy flan.

Bought from Tyll Kroha, Kölner Münzkabinett, 1989.

MIR (Tabelle 23) gives obverse legend IMP VALERIANVS P AVG for this type, but the illustration on Tafel 63 shows that it is IMP P LIC VALERIANO AVG, as on this coin. Both RIC and Cunetio describe the item in the left hand of Virtus as a spear, Cunetio adding ‘point upwards’. However, MIR illustrates this type (Tafel 155, 657) with a sceptre, without point, as on this coin.

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A mint at Viminacium, on the River Danube in modern Serbia, operated from the very start of the joint reign of Valerian I and Gallienus in AD 253. Its main purpose was to supply coinage to pay the army on the Danube frontier. It was closed, in AD 257 according to MIR, and its personnel and equipment transferred to Colonia Agrippinensis (Cologne). Unsurprisingly many of the reverse inscriptions and designs utilised were of a military nature, celebrating victories or praising the loyalty of the soldiers.