442, Lot: 525. Estimate $150. Sold for $200. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Valerian I. AD 253-260. Antoninianus (23mm, 2.65 g, 6h). Overstruck on denarius of Severus Alexander. [IMP C P LIC VAL]ERIANVS AV[G], radiate bust right / [IOVI CONSE]RVA, Jupiter standing left, holding thunderbolt and sceptre. MIR 36, 25d; RIC V 92. VF, good silver content. Underlying brilliance.

Ex Leu Numismatik Web Auction 1 (25 June 2017), lot 1187.

The following six lots all appear, for various reasons, to be the result of experimental strikings rather than coins intended for circulation.

This coin has been overstruck on a denarius of Severus Alexander (RIC 254), with visible legends …….ALEXANDER PIVS AVG / SPES PVB ….. The auction catalogue offers the explanation that: ‘The Rome mint must have started issuing coins for the new emperor Valerian I in great haste after the murder of Aemilian in 253: this explains why some old coins, like our example, were not properly melted down but overstruck with little care using the newly produced Valerian dies.’ It seems to me more probable that this is a trial striking, not intended for circulation.