Divo Claudio Virtus avg mule - Claudius II

[snorkelpaleis]

It has been a while since I bought an ancient coin and shared it here. When I saw this coin online immediately I thought it was odd, because divo claudio obverses mainly come with consecratio altar or eagle reverse. Recently this coin came in the mail and I was excited to do some more research on this coin. It seems to be a mule with posthumous obverse and reverse of Claudius's lifetime.


DIVO CLAVDIO
VIRTUS AVG
Weight: 1,97 grams

RIC 5a  -  290

Ric notes that these coins are scarce. Most, if not all of them, are of Rome.


Normanby hoard lists one example  #1122 with a weight of 2,65 grams (category poor)

I hope I did my research well and I hope maybe more info can be added to this coin.

Table 20 of the normanby hoard lists 38 divo claudius mules for the nieder rentgen hoard and 69 mules for the bavai hoard. I couldn't find any more info about these hoards and if they have examples of the virtus avg mule.

[shanxi]

also Cunetio 1842,  1.85g

[AMICTUS]

Mules with DIVO CLAVDIO and life time reverse VIRTVS AVG mentioned in Göbl, Die Münzprägung des Kaisers AVRELIANVS n° 100/22 (Tafel 45-6) and the n° 1122 of the Normanby hoard  as well, have a figure of Virtus (Mars) to left holding branch and spear, shield at his feet at left. The figure of Virtus (Mars) on the present coin seems to be Virtus (Mars) with spear and holding a shield on right (no branch). So this reverse seems to be an inversion of a life time reverse of Claudius used during the 4th issue at Rome (Normanby n° 922).Part of the DIVO CLAVDIO coinage (including mules) are in fact local imitations.

[snorkelpaleis]

Mules with DIVO CLAVDIO and life time reverse VIRTVS AVG mentioned in Göbl, Die Münzprägung des Kaisers AVRELIANVS n° 100/22 (Tafel 45-6) and the n° 1122 of the Normanby hoard  as well, have a figure of Virtus (Mars) to left holding branch and spear, shield at his feet at left. The figure of Virtus (Mars) on the present coin seems to be Virtus (Mars) with spear and holding a shield on right (no branch). So this reverse seems to be an inversion of a life time reverse of Claudius used during the 4th issue at Rome (Normanby n° 922).Part of the DIVO CLAVDIO coinage (including mules) are in fact local imitations.

Thanks Amictus. So this is a new, unlisted type of divo claudio mule?


About the local imitations; This coin and a lot of the other divo claudio coins look like from official dies, but have lower weight. So is it possible to divide the 3th century coinage in three different categories?:


1.) official coins with the right weight
2.) local imitations with lower weight, made unofficially with original dies
3.) barbaric imitations with lower weight en crude style, made with dies from a skillfull armorer for instance.

[mauseus]

Hi,

Unfortunately the Gӧbl’s Aurelian MIR volume does present some problems when looking at the deified Claudius II coins etc. You should also cross reference it with Marcus Weder’s review article in Numismatic Chronicle (vol 154, 1994, pp 243-66). He goes through the plates and identifies many Gallic copies (“barbarous radiates”). I suspect that most of the mules pairing a lifetime die with a deified die are irregular.

To add to the thread I have gone through my trays and photographed all the deified Claudius II obverse coins with lifetime reverses, all probably irregular (some more so than others).

1. Annona
2. Walking Pax (copying Milan?)
3. Providentia
4. Jupiter
5. Laetitia
6. Aequitas

Regards,

Mauseus

[mauseus]

And the last......

[snorkelpaleis]

Thanks Mauseus Great coins