Ancient Coins: Probus

Its the end of the Third century AD, and the Roman Empire is slowly dragging itself out of a serious crisis that among other things, destroyed its monetary standard.

Probus was the first emperor to after decades of neglect, pick up the tradition of issuing state propaganda through his coinage, resulting on fascinating coins issued in his rather short reign.

Today, lets get to know some of the coins of this amazing Emperor not many people know about!

Aureii of Probus credit of the Trustees of the British Museum

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[Jaman]

Just wanted to say your videos help me a ton as a new coin collector! At age 29 I have rediscovered my hobby. Collecting VOC coins from my country (The Netherlands), and looking into Roman coin collecting :) Cheers and keep it up

[Belowbluewaterdiver]

Best coins of the crisis emperors bar none. My only beef is I don’t even know where to begin with his coins, they are all so cool. Guess I have to buy them all

[kayharker]

I think Gibbon said "Augustus concealed his strength through modesty, whilst later rulers disguised their weakness with ostentation" or something like that - but I am always struck by the literal translation of the names of later Emperors who often had a hard time holding the Empire together - like Probus (Honest), Auerlian (Golden) Carus (Dear) Constantine (Constant) Valentinian (Brave) etc.... as compared with the builders of the Republic who often had more down to earth names like Fabius (Bean farmer) Piso ( Pea farmer) Cicero (Chick pea farmer) Agrippa (Farmer) (s)Caepio (onion farmer) etc ....

These early honest (PROBUS) Republican soldier-farmers printed cattle (PECUS) on their coins - so giving us the name 'pecuniary' and were solid weight and value - worth about a cow - or pig or whatever. But the later Empire gave us worthless pecuniary specie and a return to a barter economy - where only a cow was still worth a cow.

Just a thought.

[caligaehistory]

Very entertaining video. Poor Probus is indeed very often overlooked by most people interested in Rome, but someone even more overlooked is Carus, his successor, who actually managed to sack Ctesiphon during the Crisis of the Third Century, a feat that hadn't taken place since the times of the Stable Empire. These post-Aurelian Emperors do deserve some checking out.

[hridgreximp]

The condition on your coins are amazing, the slivering looks near mint on some of them! Combine that with these interesting busts then you get a pretty impressive coin. My favourite one is the military bust.

[markp]

You should get one of the quadriga ones as your next Probus. He was really into chariot racing and struck quite a few coins with that theme.
Great video!

[geordiejones]

My favorite emperor. He was noticed by Valerian in the mid 250s, and similar to Aurelian, became a major figure in the inner circles of both Gallienus and Claudius. They were among the best one-two punches in all Roman history, much like the pairs of Cursor-Rullianus and Sulla-Lucullus.

[Apaleutos]

Please make one about Aurelian coins! He's one of the greatest if not the most for the integrity of the Roman Empire and he deserves to be mentioned with a video of his own with your magnificent narration.

[danphelps]

I just bought an antoninianus that has Sol Invicto on the reverse. It has Sol driving a quadriga chariot, but instead of a side view, the chariot is coming straight for the viewer with two horses going to the right and two to the left. What a bizarre perspective!

[stevekovoc]

A lot of these fascinating Roman emperors are ones I wouldn't even know existed if I had not started collecting ancient coins. Such a shame emperors like Probus, Aurelian, etc. are so often overlooked considering what they were able to do all things considered.

[bryankohn]

Very good video. I just got about 15 coins of Probus into my inventory. And I may have to keep one or two for myself. Some have almost flawless strikes and silver

[wardrm]

Late comment here. I agree with your commentary about his military bust type. I currently find my Probus coin to be the most asthetically pleasing out of my whole collection. It's a brown patina, military bust type just like your first example. The reverse displays the war god Mars. Probus coins are amazing. Great video!

[wouter]

Very nice video. Can I ask you, which books you used for research for this specific video? Keep up the awesome work!

[Mike_of_the_Sonora]

After watching this i need to read more on Probus, i have just gotten into Ancients and have only one Roman Coin. I hope my next will be of Probus, since Emperor Tacitus seems rather lonely in my coin album

[haithamdhamsheh]

Hello.
I found of these coin write IMP PRO... BVS AVG. Another side he stand near his horse with millitary clouth.. Im search since a month dont find like it. Can you tell me more about it. Send me your email to show