I Need a Valerian !

[LONGINUS]

My dear wife asked me what I want for my birthday — which is weeks away.

I said I needed a Valerian and she told me that we have some in the bathroom 🤔

 

Anyway, I ordered this fine antoninianus.

I’d love to see yours!

 

 

[ambr0zie]

Congratulations! I especially like the reverse on your coin. Not a depiction of Apollo I see too often.

Here is my only Valerian Imperial. The reason for buying it (except my wish to have him checked in my collection) was the comical reverse - this might be my sick imagination, but Orient looks a lot like the Rich Uncle Pennybags from Monopoly. Also the coin is ironic by itself as Valerian's destiny doesn't exactly recommend him as a Restitutor of Orient ...

Valerian I AD 255-256. Samosata
Billon Antoninianus
20 mm, 2,92 g
IMP C P LIC VALERIANVS P F AVG, bust of Valerian, radiate, draped, right / RESTITVT ORIENTIS, turreted woman (the Orient), draped, standing right, presenting wreath to emperor, standing left, holding spear in left hand
RIC V Valerian 287; Göbl 1685e; RSC 189.

 

 

[Kali]

His story is one of the more amusing Emperor stories. Congrats on finally getting him.

Now you need his son, wife and grand kids.

[Spaniard]

@LONGINUS...A nice example.

Here's my coin .

Valerian I AR Antoninianus.Rome AD 255-256 ...2.93g
Obverse..IMP C P LIC VALERIANVS PF AVG, radiate, draped bust right
Reverse..FELICITAS AVGG, Felicitas, disguised as a bovine, standing left holding caduceus and cornucopiae.
RIC 87, Cohen 55; Sear 9936.

[John Conduitt]

Valerian I Antoninianus, 254-255
Viminacium. Billon, 22mm, 4.33g. Radiate draped Bust right; IMP C P LIC VALERIANVS AVG. Saturn standing right holding scythe; AETERNITATI AVGG (RIC V, 210). Purportedly from the Bristol (Somerset) II Hoard 1997.

[Al Kowsky]

1 hour ago, LONGINUS said:

My dear wife asked me what I want for my birthday — which is weeks away.

I said I needed a Valerian and she told me that we have some in the bathroom 🤔

 

Anyway, I ordered this fine antoninianus.

I’d love to see yours!

 

 

D. Ray, What a wonderful birthday gift, & congrats on stretching your lifeline another year ☺️! Pictured below is a double denarius I sold at CNG 483, it fetched $168.00 including the buyers premium.

I did keep a couple of bronze provincial coins of Valerian, the one pictured below is my favorite. 

 

[Edessa]

Valerian I, AD 253-260. AR Antoninianus (20mm, 3.16g, 7h), Rome mint, struck AD 253-254. Obv: IMP C P LIC VALERIANVS AVG; Radiate, draped and cuirassed bust of Valerian I to right. Rev: APOLLINI P-ROPVG; Apollo standing right, drawing bow. Ref: Cohen 25; MIR 44d; RIC 74.

[Orange Julius]

Here’s a few good Valerians:

…and a BAD Valerian. A Fake Alexandrian Tetradrachm, a reminder of these that pop up about once a year. 

[GregH]

Nice portrait. A nice Valerian antoninianus is hard to find - the debased silver metal is usually poor quality (often <5% actual silver) & these are generally poorly struck. 
I’ve been looking for a nice Valerian upgrade for ages. 

[Qcumbor]

Nice Valerian DR

At first sight I would have thought the bust you show being that of Gallienus though !

 

Q

[Octavius]

 D. Ray,  here is a Valerian Antoninianus. I'm going to go check my bathroom to see if I can find a few more!

[shanxi]

Valerian I
Ionia, Ephesos.
(AD 253-260)
Obv: AYT K ΠO ΛIKINI OYAΛEPIANOC, Laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right.
Rev: EΦECIΩN A ACIAC, Artemis seated on stag right; holding bow and drawing arrow from quiver.
AE, 8.68g, 25mm
Ref.: Karwiese 1136 (V12/R54); BMC -; SNG von Aulock -

[dougsmit]

Many have shown nice Valerians with excellent reverses so I'll tack on mine with what I consider an 'interesting' reverse 'situation'.  My best explanation here is that two blank flans stuck together and, unnoticed, were struck together later to fall apart.  I have no idea where the reverse ended up but I have the portrait.  Not on the reverse is a faint indent caused by the deformation of the second flan that was not perfectly aligned with this one when struck.  That is evidence that the reverse was not just filed off but was created in the manner described. 

I also find interest in this antoninianus with a more normal reverse using a less than common abbreviation CONCOR LEGG using the double G to indicate the legions were plural.  The doubled letter plural abbreviation is standard with AVGG indicating two emperors.  How many other double lettered reverses have you seen?  Later we start seeing DDNN for Dominus Nostrorum and CAESS when there were multiple Caesares but this LEGG is my only example of a word other than a title using this device. 

More common is this CONCOR EXERC.  I read this to mean that the Roman point of view was that the EXERC was the army as a whole while LEGG referred to the set of individual, numbered legions.  Am I overthinking this reading this coin as exercitūs (fourth declension genitive singular) rather than exercituum the genitive plural AND, if that plural had been intended, would we see EXERCC?  I hated grammar but chose to major in Classical Languages since History majors had also to study modern times which interested me even less.  I never intended to become a teacher of language but the 1968 Draft Board took care of that by stopping my pursuit of anything academic.  The Army at least had a better (younger!) retirement plan than being a college professor.  

 

 

Edited September 29, 2022 by dougsmit
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