In previous issues of Coin Collector, I have talked about the coins of the Roman emperor Gallienus. In this article, I will look at Gallienus’ successor, Claudius II. Gallienus’ assassination outside Milan in 268 left the purple available to anyone with the power to grasp it. The army proclaimed Claudius and so began a short reign of some two years. Claudius was probably born around 214 and was, like so many of the so-called soldier emperors of the late-3rd century, of Danubian extraction.
The vast majority of Claudius’ coins are the radiate antoniniani that had become the universal coinage of the empire in the last couple of decades. These had a tiny silver content and will sometimes appear to be silvered. Nonetheless, they had a low face value and large quantities must have been required for anything but the smallest transactions. Several thousand have been found in very large hoards, such as Blackmoor, Cunetio and Normanby. Very little gold was struck although there exist a few large gold multiples, which were surely produced as accession donatives for high-ranking officers and officials (Figure 1).
Gold coin of Claudius II (Classical
