The current
RIC you refer to is pretty much useless when it
comes to the coins from the reign of
Claudius Gothicus. It is so full of errors, misunderstandings and mistakes that it is close to worthless as a reference. The long
obverse legend (
IMP C M AVR CLAVDIVS AVG - SPQR in
exergue) belongs to the third emission/first series. In this series the
VICTORIA GVTTICA AVG,
VICTORIAE GOTHIC and
VICTORIA GOTHIC is known,
his victory over the germans
had obviously
still not taken place. In the next series which has the shorter
obverse legend IMP CLAVDIVS P F AVG combined with the SPQR
exergue the
VICTORIA GERMANIC
reverse is introduced. This coin probably deserves a to be called
rare. In the next series from this emission with the short
obverse legend IMP CLAVDIVS AVG,
still SPQR in
exergue, there are only known three reverses -
FORTVNA REDVX,
VICTORIAE GOTHIC and
PAX AETERNA. In the forth and last issue with the
IMP CLAVDIVS P F AVG obverse legend, blank
exergue, the
VICTOR GERMAN reverse is introduced. A fairly common coin, I have several myself. It is of course possible that the coin is a
VICTORIA GERMANIC struck with an
obverse die from the previous series, it can also be an engravers error. But from the information we have - most important the P F you see in the
obverse legend - I am pretty sure my previous
attribution is correct. The
RIC rarity ratings for the coins of
Claudius Gothicus is, btw, as trustable as the rest of the publication. Best regards, Finn Johannessen
