COINS OF THE GALLIC EMPERORS

FOR FOURTEEN YEARS during the late third century (260 – 274 CE), the western provinces of the Roman Empire maintained a separate state independent of Rome. Rulers of this so-called Gallic Empire issued coinage that was often of better metal and workmanship than Rome was producing.

In the Spring of 260, the Sassanian Persian ruler Shapur I disastrously defeated the Roman emperor Valerian in battle. When this news reached the legions on the Rhine frontier, they proclaimed Postumus, the military governor of the German provinces, as emperor, in opposition to Valerian's son, Gallienus.

Postumus

 

Postumus, 261 CE, Treveri Mint. AV Aureus. Image: British Museum.

Preoccupied with threats in the East, Gallienus lacked the strength to fight Postumus and reluctantly accepted his breakaway empire. A capable administrator, Postumus organized his regime on classic Roman lines, with its own Senate and an extensive coinage of gold aurei (73 types), alloy antoniniani (108 types; often described as radiates because of the radiant spiked crown on the imperial portrait) and bronze sestertii (73 types).

Frequently reproduced (for example, on the dust jacket of David Sear's Roman Coins and Their Values, Volume III) a unique gold aureus of Postumus bears a remarkably sensitive facing head of the emperor, turned slightly to the left, work of a talented master engraver. Gifted to the British Museum in 1864 by the collector Edward Wigan (1823-1871) this coin is described as the finest portrait executed on a Roman coin in the 3rd century. The reverse, evidently the work of a less skilled hand (reverse dies wore out more quickly, and were often assigned to apprentices), shows the emperor seated, with a Latin inscription celebrating the dutiful generosity of emperor Postumus. This was probably a special issue intended for distribution to officers and members of the elite. The coin was crudely pierced in antiquity.

 

Postumus, 260 – 269 Aureus, Cologne 261. Image: NAC.

Another very rare gold aureus struck at Köln, bears a more conventional profile portrait wearing a laurel wreath. On the reverse are three heads of the sun god Sol, wearing his signature radiate crown. This may represent the three provinces of Roman Gaul: Belgica, Lugdunensis, and Aquitania. The simple inscription is AETERNITAS (Eternity).

To read the complete article, see:
Breakaway Empire: Coins of the Gallic Emperors (https://coinweek.com/breakaway-empire-coins-of-the-gallic-emperors/)

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
WAYNE'S NUMISMATIC DIARY JANUARY 21, 2024 (https://www.coinbooks.org/v27/esylum_v27n03a20.html)

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web