Aurelian Billon Antoninianus GVF

Septimius Severus was Roman Emperor from AD 193-211. In AD 208 he travelled to Britain to strengthen Hadrian’s Wall and went on to invade Scotland that same year but his plans were cut short when he became ill and died in York in AD 211. We have a few silver denarius in Very Fine Condition minted during his reign. There are different types but all have his portrait on the obverse, and usually a standing or seated figure on the reverse. PHOTOGRAPH IS REPRESENTATIVE OF COIN SUPPLIED.

Before the Crisis of the Third Century, most cities in the Roman Empire did not have walls, dried fruit from Syria could be bought in Britain and copper from Cornwall was traded in Egypt! Sadly this did not last and continuing with our series we offer one of the harder major Emperors to get from the Crisis, Claudius II Gothicus. Born around A.D. 214 he had held several important military commands during the reigns of Valerian I and Gallienus. When Gallienus was murdered at the siege of Milan, Claudius was swiftly proclaimed emperor by the troops and approved by the Senate. He took the city of Milan and suppressed the rebellion. He quickly defeated the invading Alemanni tribe, then the invading Goths in A.D. 269, winning the title ‘Gothicus Maximus’. Next year the Goths attacked again in Thrace, but an outbreak of plague left them so weak they were again defeated by Claudius. But the plague spread from the captured Goths to the Roman army. Claudius himself fell victim and died of plague at Sirmium in August A.D. 269. He was the turning point in the fortunes of the Roman Empire, the beginning of a long struggle back to stability after The Crisis. We offer Billon Antoninianus with various reverses in an About Very Fine grade with various reverses. As is typical with these coins from The Crisis some will have weaker sections and the first to order will get the best! Claudius Gothicus is one of the hardest Crisis emperors to get so these will run out fast.

This is something you will not see often. These bronze coins from Greek colony city of Olbia in Thrace were cast in the shape of a dolphin! They were made to honour their god Apollo Delphinios. This name is linked to the story of Cretan sailors in a storm who were guided to safety by Apollo shaped as a dolphin, landing at Delphi they became his priests. It also likely that the people were imitating what they saw, there were large numbers of dolphins in the Black Sea and still are today! Playful and intelligent, they would have been as friendly then as they are now. These were cast in bronze in the 5th to 4th centuries B.C., and because of this process do not have a tail. They show the body, the vast majority have the dorsal fin and some will even have eye pellets. As always the first to order will get the best, in this case the shape and features!