Civil war denarius 68 AD

[GERMANICVS]

@Coinmaster, that is an interesting find. (Any coin related to the Civil War of 69 a.D is exciting)

Just a thought, could it be that ULTORI is just missing from the reverse due to primitive striking conditions, thus off the flan?

 

Besides the galba Hispania denarius I posted a few days ago, I only have 1 denarius which I is directly related to the civil - this Bon Event denarius struck in Hispania

Roman Imperial 
Civil Wars, 68-69. Denarius (Silver, 19 mm, 3.60 g, 7 h), uncertain mint in Spain, 68. BON EVENT Diademed head of Bonus Eventus to right. Rev. ROM RENASC Roma standing right, holding Victory in right hand and long eagle-tipped scepter in left. BMC 9-10. Cohen 396. Martin 52. Nicolas 49. RIC 9. Rare and unusually nice, an attractive example struck in good silver and without the usual porosity. Very fine.

ex Leu.

 

Besides that example, I have a number of other denarii from Otho, Galba and Vitellius, all Rome issues, with the exception of the Concensus Exercituum  denarius of Vitellius which was struck in Hispania (or Gallia), and the Galba quinarius which (I believe) was struck in Lugdunum. 

 

 

 

   

Edited July 13 by GERMANICVS
Added photo os my Galba quinarius.

[Coinmaster]

19 hours ago, Victrix said:

You might be correct these were the words of Leu that sold a private collection of The Gollnow Collection which was the biggest collection of civil war denarii iirc. I'm not leaning towards one or the other as i'm open to both options. It would make sense these were officially made plated coins since the majority of the surviving examples are plated and getting huge amounts of silver would have been hard geographically. Like most things it's neither black or white and we'll likely never know for sure 😛 

I was just strolling trough The Gollnow Collection and saw this remark at coin lot no. 1100: ‘What makes this coin particularly interesting is that it was struck from the same reverse die as lot 1117 below. This not only connects the SALVS GENERIS HVMANI type to the PACI P R issue, it also attests the concurrent use of dies for both plated and solid silver coins.’. See: https://leunumismatik.com/en/auction/27/.

Very strange, or even disturbing is the fact that all the Gollnow coins are attributed to either ‘forces of Galba’, ‘Rhine legions may/june-december 68’ or ‘Vitellius’. What?! Has Vindex suffered a damnatio memoriae?! This can not be true at all. Vindex must have produced coins for paying at least his own army / rebellion group, with clear propaganda texts on them, to overthrown the brutal government of emperor Nero. Like the coins with the text ‘MARS VLTOR’, the revenging war god Mars. Ultor means revenger, just like the name Vindex. Clearly, this cannot be a coincidence. Reading Sutherland again (RIC, from page 197 onwards), I even find no hard evidence for Galba striking ‘rebellion coins’ at all between March-June 68, until the death of Nero. I also don’t know of any find specimen of that period from Spain. Does any of you? So shouldn’t we give Vindex more credit for producing (most of) the coin types?

We really should look better at coin finds from this period: where are they found?! In my own research I have noted 3 coins of a type that’s attributed to Galba, but two of them have been found in The Netherlands. How likely is this to be from a Spanish coin production place (like Tarraco), instead from Gaul (Vienne)?

To conclude, I do agree with this remark in the Gollnow catalogue: ‘Intriguing as this observation is, it shows that grouping civil war coins only by types is a dangerous endeavor that can easily lead to the wrong conclusions. In the troublesome years of 68 and 69, the coinage of each political stakeholder was eagerly received by their respective allies, opponents, and successors, leading to a conglomerate of intertwined numismatic iconography that only gradually reveals its secrets.’

 

 

[Coinmaster]

4 hours ago, GERMANICVS said:

Just a thought, could it be that ULTORI is just missing from the reverse due to primitive striking conditions, thus off the flan?

Great collection of coins @GERMANICVS, thanks for sharing! And thanks for your reply. About ULTORI, yes, I was thinking about this too, but the double die match coin is of great condition, with enough space for the text, don’t you agree?

[Victrix]

2 hours ago, Coinmaster said:

 

We really should look better at coin finds from this period: where are they found?!

 

 

Sadly there doesn't exist a treasury program in Europe like in the UK. So I think that'll be quite the challenge since majority of coins have no find provenance which is a real shame. That's why I love collecting anglo saxon coins as I know in which village most are found.