An unpublished As of Clodius Albinus as AugustusFrédéric weber |
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Towards the end of 195 AD, when it became clear that Septimius Severus had no intention of sharing the imperial purple with him for much longer, Clodius Albinus took the title of Augustus in Gaul. Needing to have some coins struck in his name, he reopened the Lyons mint which principally issued silver denarii and a very small number of gold coins.
Henry Cohen (1) knew no "bronze" coins of Clodius Albinus struck using the title of Augustus and R.I.C.(2) mentions only one single example of one coin struck in a non-precious metal. Today, we know of at least four examples which carry the Augustus title which were struck in Lyons. These four coins are in fact all of the As variety and do not include the letters "S C" on their reverses, thus showing that Clodius Albinus did not create a senate outside of Rome. The coins seem to have been more a matter of confidentiality in view of their extreme rarity and the fact that these coins were all struck using a different obverse die for two or three different reverses (3).
The first two As coins are in the British Museum, one of which has the reference number of 622 and a weight of 14.06 grams. They have the reverse of FORTVNAE REDVCI COS II (Fortuna seated left, holding a rudder resting on a globe, and a cornucopiae) and they are from identical dies, and this is the only reverse catalogued by R.I.C. for coins of a non-precious metals issued by Clodius Albinus. The second As of two published by Jean-Baptiste Giard in his in-depth study of the Lyons mint (3), was sold by Numismatic LANZ of Munich in its 14th auction in 1978 (lot n° 265), issued using an obverse die which he believed to be different than the example in the British Museum, which he knew, whilst the very worn reverse was uncertain. The weight was 9.47 grams. Curtis Clay, whom we contacted, told us that it seemed that the obverse die of this example was identical to the one used to strike the examples in the British Museum, and that the reverse depicted Victory standing right.
Now, the fourth copper coin known by Clodius Albinus as Augustus, which we are publishing here, was struck using the same right-facing bust die as the ones in the British Museum, but with a different reverse. The reverse is VICTORIA AVG COS II (Victory walking right, holding a wreath and palm), a reverse already known, albeit with a shortened legend, on denarii (4), and which is probably the same one as the As sold by LANZ whose legend was illegible. This coin weight 10.63 grams and has just been entered into our collection :
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As de cuivre, R/ VICTORIA AVG COS II (Frederic Weber Collection) |
These coins are of considerable historical importance, showing that the Lyons mint didn't only strike coins in precious metals for this emperor during his short reign. They also constitute rare exceptions to the rule which claim that bronze and copper coins of the time were struck exclusively by Senatoral Decree (SC = Senatus Consulte). The absence of the "S C" abbreviation shows us that Clodius Albinus had not created a second senate outside of Rome and that he apparently had no plans of separation.
The Senate had not recognized Clodius Albinus as Augustus, no Ases should have even existed in the name of this emperor. Yet for some obscure reason, this emperor wanted - despite everything - to issue a small quantity of copper coins struck by the Lyons mint... and so four of these Ases have survived time to reach us. Let us also note that it seems that he struck neither sestertii nor dupondii.
Frédéric Weber, March 2006
(1) COHEN, Henry , Description Historique des monnaies frappées sous l'Empire Romain, Second Edition, Paris, 1880-1892.
(2) MATTINGLY, Harold, SYDENHAM, Edward. Vol. IV. Pertinax to Uranius Antoninus, London, 1936.
(3) GIARD, Jean-Baptiste. Le monnayage de l'atelier de Lyon, de Claude Ier à Vespasien et au temps de Clodius Albinus, Wetteren, 2000. Mr Giard has studied the numismatic collections in the largest museums in the world, in countless auction and sales catalogs and in private collections. He has made an inventory of two Ases issued using two obverse dies (D96 and D97) and two reverse dies (R93 and R94).
(4) Illustration : NUMISMATIC LANZ MÜNCHEN, Auktion 121, November 2004, n° 436 : Silver denarius :
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Silver denarius R/ VICT AVG COS II, RIC 43c, Cohen 79, Giard 39, (Numismatic LANZ, Auktion 121, November 2004, lot n° 436) |
Thanks to Helvetica for the translation
