ROMAN EMPIRE Salonina 254-268 AD antoninianus Milan mint

Description

In the time of Gallienus there was a range of sizes of the antoniniani. The small, thin ones, like this one, are considered by some to be imitations from Eastern Europe.

Salonina was wife of Gallienus and mother of Valerian II and Saloninus. There is apparently no gossip about her, it seems that she shared in her husband’s work, and both participated in the “this can’t be all there is, what’s really going on behind the scenes” discussions of the philosopher Plotinus. More coin types, from more mints, than for any other female Roman person.

In the Imperial Period Roman coinage became an engine for governmental propaganda. All of the themes of the coins are celebratory of some aspect of govermental authority or achievement.

The Roman Republic was founded in response to tyrannical kings. It functioned for several centuries in a kind of balance of rich and poor people (slaves didn’t count). The general idea was that laws would constrain personal power. During the days of Julius Caesar, et al, powerful people became too powerful, and a new system of slightly constrained autocracy, the Empire, developed. The main catalog we use on this web site for Roman coins is Roman Coins and their Values, by David Sear.

Ancient Coins includes Greek and Roman coins and those of neighbors and successors, geographically from Morocco and Spain all the way to Afghanistan. Date ranges for these begin with the world’s earliest coins of the 8th century BC to, in an extreme case, the end of Byzantine Empire, 1453 AD.