442, Lot: 318. Estimate $500. Sold for $800. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Gallienus. AD 253-268. Æ Sestertius or Medallion (28mm, 19.37 g, 12h). Mediolanum (Milan) mint. Issue 1, AD 258-9. IMP C P LIC GALLIENVS P F AVG, laureate and cuirassed bust right / [DI]ANA FELIX, Diana running right, holding bow and drawing arrow from quiver; stag at her feet. MIR 36, 926q; RIC V (joint reign) 418; Banti 15. Fine, green patina.

Ex Classical Numismatic Group Electronic Auction 412 (17 January 2018), lot 658.

This item belongs to a very small group of bronze issues struck during the joint reign of Valerian I and Gallienus at Milan. Just three types have been recorded for Gallienus (MIR 926q, 927q and 928q) , and all are rare today. In all published catalogues they are described as sestertii, but in the catalogue for the auction at which this was purchased it was described as a medallion, and this may be the case. However, there is a case to be made for either category. All bronze issues from Milan – and there are very few recorded types anyway – are known from small numbers of extant specimens, and although the presence or absence of S C on the reverse would have offered a clue to their identifications at the Rome mint, this aspect is far from helpful at Milan. Of the three joint reign types for Gallienus, two (MIR 926q and 927q) have no S C, but 928q, which is otherwise the same as 927q, with reverse VICTORIA AVGG, has Ƨ Ɔ in the field. Of the three joint reign ‘sestertii’ for Salonina, all of which have the same reverse (FECVNDITAS AVGG), MIR 930v has S C, 931v has C S and 932v has no letters. Smaller bronze issues from Milan reveal the same dichotomy. An ‘As’ of Saloninus (MIR 936cc) appears from the illustration to have no letters in the reverse field, and neither does a sole reign issue of Gallienus (MIR 969aa), but another (MIR 944aa) does bear S C. My personal feeling is that all these issues are coins, not medallions, for two reasons. First, the few issues attributed to Milan which are definitely medallions are of larger module and have reverses which differ from any which appear on coins (e.g. MIR 929r and 933w), whereas the other bronzes are of the same proportions as sestertii and Asses, and have reverse types also used on antoniniani. Second, the fact that some of the reverses bear S C, sometimes in a blundered form, suggests that an attempt was being made to copy the format of Rome mint bronze coins. The absence of these letters from some of the types is probably due to lack of care or simple incompetence in the cutting of the dies. Why such small numbers of bronze coins should have been struck at all at this mint is not clear, however.