Nomos 38

Probus, 276-282. Aureus (Gold, 22 mm, 4.81 g, 6 h), Lugdunum, November-December 276. IMP C M AVR PROBVS AVG Laureate and cuirassed bust of Probus to right, with light drapery on his far shoulder. Rev. MARS VICTOR Mars advancing to right, holding a spear with his right hand and a trophy, over his shoulder, with his left. C 333. Bastien, Lyon, 158 and pl. 18, 158 = Biaggi 1617 = Calicó 4166 (this coin). RIC 6. Clear and well-centered; illustrated by Bastien, Biaggi, and Calicó. Minor marks, otherwise, about extremely fine.

From the Langensalza Collection, ex Hesso-Divo 341, 13 December 2023, 114, from the collection of L. Biaggi, Numismatica Ars Classica 49, 21 October 2008, 396, and from the collection at Gotha, Hess, Lucerne [239] 9 May 1951, 263.

This coin was once in the great ducal collection in Gotha; and while there is still quite an important collection there, a considerable portion of the collection was taken west by the ducal family just prior to the arrival of the Russian army at the end of World War II. Many of the more valuable pieces were then sold by the Duke during the 1950s through auctions by Münzen und Medaillen and Hess (as the 1951 Hess sale that contained this piece). The coins themselves had entered the collection prior to World War I (there was no money available for acquisitions after that time): this piece must have been acquired much earlier since the damages on this coin are those that are characteristically found on Roman gold in collections formed in the 18th century or earlier. This is probably because many of those coins came from chance finds rather than hoards. Interestingly enough, none of the earlier auction cataloguers seem to have noticed the marks on this coin.