New Collecting Theme

I am fond of the emperor Gallienus. The Roman Empire had been at the brink of catastrophe since the murder of Severus Alexander in 235 AD, and severe internal and external stresses began to pull them empire apart in the joint reign of Valerian and his son Gallienus. Gallienus had to deal with devasting Germanic incursions, civil revolts that saw parts of the Empire break away from central control, and, of course, the ultimate humiliation of Valerian's capture by the Persians in 260 AD.

He was, however, quite energetic in meeting these crises. In fact, the coinage of Gallienus's reign is full of publicity and propganda themes which present interesting collecting avenues. For example, there is a "Legionary Series" in which Gallienus commemorated the fidelity of the legions involved in the defeat of the Alemmani at Milan and of Ingenuus and then Regalianus in Pannonia. There are the "Victory Types" in which Gallienus sought to renumber his victories over the Germans, possibly to stress his independence from his recently captured father Valerian. And there is also a "German Victory Series" which commemorates at least five successful campaigns against the Germanic tribes along the Rhine and Danube frontiers. There are at least 17 different versions of German Victory types. Below is a version that commemorates a Roman victory over the Alemmani at Milan in 259 AD.

The obverse features a radiate and draped bust of Gallienus facing left with the legend GALLIENVS PF AVG. The reverse features two bound captives sitting back-to-back under a Roman trophy. The legend reads GERMANICVS MAX V. While the reverse legend is specific to Gallienus, the reverse's "Roman Trophy" image is one common throughout Roman Imperial coingae and is one of my favorite. The coin was struck in 260 AD at Lyons. Though weakly struck, the coins shows much better in hand than it does in my crappy scan.