Gordian III/ Balbinus mule

[leseullunique]

I just received this sestertius, only the second of my database

M ANT GORDIANVS CAES
Draped buste right seen from behind

LIBERALITAS AVGVSTORVM
Liberalitas standing left holding abacus and cornucopia

32mm

24.05g

sames dies than the specimen of Copenhagen

Same reverse dies than Balbinus https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=1887943 (Kunker auction 248, N°7565)

But for the PIETAS AVGG aureus, I can say than my serie for Gordianus Caesar is finished.

[Joe Sermarini]

But for the PIETAS AVGG aureus, I can say than my serie for Gordianus Caesar is finished.

Wow!

[curtislclay]

Rare Gordian III as Caesar on the obverse, interesting historical reverse type, only the second known specimen of this type for the young Caesar!

I wouldn't call the coin a mule, however. The Distribution Scene type of Balbinus and Pupienus (see picture below) shows three figures seated on curule chairs and presiding over the distribution, therefore Gordian was already Caesar and entitled to have coins struck for him when this largesse was commemorated on the coins. So it was to be expected that the LIBERALITAS AVGVSTORVM type might intentionally have been struck for him too, along with Balbinus and Pupienus.

Two other coins of Gordianus III as Caesar that might also have been struck though they have not yet been attested: the Liberalitas standing type on denarii and the Distribution Scene type on sestertii.

[leseullunique]

Dear Curtis, thanks for comment.

I did check my database for the Liberalitas serie for Balbinus and Pupienus and I still didn't find any die link between those

Like the only 2 specimens of Gordian where minted with a die also known for Balbinus, I made that interpretation...

I also remember in RIC a note about the Distribution scene

"Voetter, in N.Z., 1893, p.392, deduce from C. (Gordian III) 150 the existence of a sestertius with a Liberalitas Augustorum distribution scene - a conjecture accepted by Pink in N.Z., 1935, p23. The conjecture must still remain doubtful: possibly C.'s description conceals a hybrid. (Vienne has a cast, from Voetter coll., with obv. as N°2 above, and rev. as of Balbinus no.14, or Pupienus no. 13.)C. (Gordian III) 184 is too dubious to be listed here"

By the way, I have a lot of pictures from Vienna (and other museums), but I did never got from Mr Vondrovec the picture of that cast and the specimen from Voetter did never come back on the market since 130 years... so to my eyes, that type don't have to exist because Gordian wasn't August.

Regards