Very Rare Bust Type for Maximinus II Revised

452, Lot: 767. Estimate $500. Sold for $1000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Maximinus II. As Caesar, AD 305-309. Æ Follis (24mm, 5.76 g, 12h). Antioch mint, 7th officina. MAXIMINVS NOB CAES, laureate and mantled bust left, holding Victory on globe and shield decorated with two riders on horseback left, each holding banner flying overhead, and six soldiers celebrating a victory below / MAXIMINVS NOBILI SSIMVS CAESAR, Maximinus, in military dress, standing left, holding globe and long scepter; (lighted altar)|Z//ANT. Cf. RIC VI 120. Brown patina, areas of flat strike. Good VF. Very rare bust type. Struck with obverse die of artistic merit.

The shield details for this very rare obverse bust type have been described in RIC VI, p. 630 as “two riders and four prisoners”. The exceptional details of the design on this high-grade example call us to revise the description of the shield details as follows: shield decorated with two riders on horseback left, each holding banner flying overhead, and six soldiers celebrating a victory below. If the standing figures were prisoners/captives they would have been portrayed bound or seated and bound. Instead, the standing figures appear jubilant and unrestrained in their posture.