Hi,
Still awaiting for this coin to arrive, however, on the basis of the photographs it looks to be a very
rare reverse type for
Gallienus from the
mint described as
Cyzicus in
MIR but which may be located at
Smyrna under Galienus and the early
part of the reign of
Claudius II before relocating to
Cyzicus (see paper by
Mairat,
Revue Numismatique, 2007). The products of the
mint are characterised by the letters SPQR in the exrgue on the
reverse.
The
reverse type is
PAX FVNDATA with a
trophy of arms and two
captives below. A similar
reverse type from the "SPQR
mint" is recorded but paired with the
legend VIRTVTI AVG (Gobl 1555)
PAX FVNDATA is a
type that is known from
Antioch (Gobl 1635) where it is recorded with both a blank
exergue and also with a branch in there. The simiarity of these "
Cyzicus" coins to the
Antioch products has been noted before, for example, Elks "The Eastern mints of Valerian and
Gallienus",
Numismatic Chronicle 1975, includes the SPQR coins there. The similarities may be due simple to the transfer of some personnel in the establishment of the operation towards the end of the reign of
Gallienus.
This coin is unlisted in Gobl's
MIR,
RIC and Elk's paper
nor is it represented in Ed Flinn's marvellous
collection. I have located a second example of the
type on the
Gallienus web
collection at
http://mk.shahrazad.net/gallienus/ and the photo of that specimen is the second coin below. The two specimens look to be
reverse die duplicates.
Regards,
Mauseus
