Obv: [
MAX]IMIN - VS
NOB C Head laureate r.
Rev: ORIEN - S -
AVGG Radiate Sol standing l., naked apart from cloak over l. shoulder and falling from l.
arm, raising r. hand and holding globe and whip in l. hand;
SIS in
exergue.
AE 16, 2.43g, 6h; ex
CNG E 243, 27 Oct. 2010, 465.
Misattributed by
CNG to
Galerius as
Caesar, this coin is in fact clearly of
Maximinus II as
Caesar, so must have been struck between 305 and 310 AD. In May 305, upon the retirement of
Diocletian and
Maximian,
Maximinus was made
Caesar with
Severus II; he was proclaimed
Augustus by
his troops apparently in 310.
RIC
Siscia 193 is an
aureus of
Maximinus II with the same
types, legends and
mintmark as the new bronze coin, assigned to 308-9 AD; a specimen is illustrated by
Depeyrot, Les monnaies d'or I, pl. 15, 11/5. Doubtless some gold quinarii of the same
type were originally struck along with this
aureus, and some bronze quinarii were struck too, perhaps from the same dies, of which a specimen has now turned up.
Siscia had struck similar
ORIENS AVGG aurei for
Constantius I and
Galerius as Caesars about five years earlier (RIC 28a-b), and these
aurei were indeed accompanied by gold quinarii, with
legend ORIENS AVGG for
Maximian (RIC 30),
ORIENS AVGVSTOR for Constantius and
Galerius Caesars (RIC 31a-b, 31a illustrated on pl. 9). For this earlier issue no corresponding BRONZE quinarii have yet been recorded, however.
I was impressed to see that Lech Stępniewski has already entered this new bronze
quinarius in
his Not in RIC lists, and has
corrected the
attribution from
Galerius to
Maximinus, though he apparently overlooked the corresponding
aureus, RIC
Siscia 193, which shows where the new
quinarius fits into the coinage!
