Ancient Coins: Gallienus

Gallienus, a this name might not sound familiar to anyone who isn´t very into Roman history or Roman Numismatics. During his very troubled reign, this man saw the Empire plunge into very dark times, and his vast coinage from his 15-year reign reflects on these dark moments.

Today, we will explore some of Gallienus´s coins, from the best-looking ones at the start of his reign, all the way to the heavily debased ones from the end of his time as Emperor, and learn a bit about their history.

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Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License

Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License

[redjirachi]

Gallienus is helluva underrated. The Crisis was at its worse but he did everything in his power to prevent it collapsing. There's also the fact he served the longest of any emperor during the Crisis. Had he not been assassinated, we may sing his praises like we do Aurelian, and to an extent Diocletian

[yaboyed]

The tragedy of Gallienus. Tried to save Rome from her external enemies but failed to spot the Internal ones.

[fabianignes]

I'm a fanboy of Gallienus! Recently i 've acquired an antoninianus of him with Uberitas on the reverse.

[misaelfraga]

I have a coin of his late reign. It's easy to praise Aurelian, but it was Gallienus that had the foresight to have a permanent cavalry reserve centered within the empire to allocate military forces more efficiently and swiftly. His mistake was trying to defend everything which ultimately meant he lost everything by which I mean his life. Aurelian forsaked the territory of Dacia a territory that Gallienus defended successfully, but Aurelian managed to consolidate his forces to deal with usurpers more effectively than Gallienus and for that very reason picking his battles. Gallienus would have been a great emperor in any other period before him. What a pity he's very underrated given the circumstances he inherited the Senatorial class didn't praise him because he supported the lower classes military advancement through merit not nepotism.

[christopherevans]

One of the interesting things about Gallienus coin's is that the one's produced in the Eastern Mints are usually of good size for the age, and had the best silver content for the age. And he had the least control, or should I say reach than he did in Europe. Just show's how rich the East was in antiquity and late.

[bear]

I just bought a Gallienus coin today in very good condition. It has mercury on the obverse.

[isabelcrb]

I love the zoo series of gallienus, its a cheap way to do "coin roll hunting" with ancient coins

[goldblood]

I just so happen to have 2 gallienus bronzes (one of them a zoo issue) and 2 antoniniani of both valerian and gallienus

[Numischannel]

Hi friend! The mint of Lugdunum, sugested by Webb, the author of RIC Vol. V, has long been discarded. RIC V was obsolete even by 1933 standards, the date of publication. The Gallic mint of Valerian-Gallienus was either Cologne or (less probably) Trier. Trier is the most likely main mint of the Gallic Empire of Postumus and successors, it is supposed that the Gallic mint was moved from Cologne (which is known to have been the main base in the Rhine under Valerian and Gallienus) to Trier by Postumus. In any case, the mint of Cologne was re-oppened by Postumus in his last year of rule. The updated bibliography for this period is Bland & Alia, "The Cunetio Hoard" and Göbl "Moneta Imperii Romani" vol. 36 (Valerianus - Gallienus). Elmer starts his 1941 catalogue of coins of the Gallic empire with Valerian and Gallienus issues from the mint of Cologne. Hope this was useful!

[AsherHamilton-mz]

I have a gallianus coin minted in milan italy the reverse has sol Invictus on it

[isabelcrb]

Gallienus has very pretty coins for cheap, I have three and like them a lot!

[samuelberg]

Nice to see videos like this which cover different eras of Roman coinage and not just the “big money” early types! Looking forward to the barrack emperors video!

[wardrm]

I would like to see a video on Aurelian coins. One of my most favorite coins in my collection. He single handedly brought the empire back together through sheer determination and will. Sol Invictus!

[karlclark]

I love your voice and story telling it makes want to buy every coin lol

[AardvarkDream]

I have several Gallienus coins. In fact, one of my favorite coins is a Gallienus. It's not particularly worn, yet it's virtually unreadable. Most coins, you hold them, you can feel the value that they once held. They feel like *coins*. Not my Gallienus. From the Milan mint, It feels like a piece of scrap metal that someone picked up off the floor, looked at briefly, shrugged in a kind of WTH way, and stamped. It's not circular. It's only vaguely oval. The obverse and the reverse don't line up at all., and the reverse is so off-center I'm tempted to call it "half-centered", since half of it isn't even there. The edge is totally raggedy, and it has a crack in it. The metal is absurdly thin - aluminum dogtags feel more substantial - and yet, like I said, I don't think it's really all that worn. It's just a crap job. It's the finest example I have of Roman mint workers proudly demonstrating that if they had phones they TOTALLY would have been phoning it in that day. The quality control on my coin was just absolutely wretched, and for some reason that makes me actually kind of like the coin. This is the Roman coin from The Island of Misfit Toys. It doesn't just look crappy now, I have the strongest feeling it looked just as crappy the day it was struck.

[wilsontheconqueror]

Didn't Constantine switch to the Gold Standard for the empire's larger currency purchases?

[cattmandan]

My best Gallienus actually came from an uncleaned lot. It's a silvered zoo antoninianus of a stag from Siscia, rather than the far more common stag reverses from Rome. The condition was actually quite reasonable as well!

[coinzzz]

i have one Gallienus, but i really dont know what coin it is

[druzhynets]

Gallienus is a Roman collector's junk food: everyone tries having one from time to time :)

[KS-unyb]

Gallienus is the main man in my collection, mostly zoo coins with a few legionary and standing issues. I honestly don’t mind the less than perfect coins, I feel like they have really good character, but that’s just my own personal opinion. I posted on Reddit a picture of, what was at the time of posting, the bulk of my Gallienus zoo coins in a lindner box. I had to order another box to fit the rest. They are not the prettiest coins out there, but I still love them all!