THE COIN COLLECTOR'S MANUAL COMPRISING AN HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL ACCOUNT OF THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF COINAGE, FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE COINAGES OF MODERN EUROPE, AFRICANUS MAXIMUS, GORDIANUS AFRICANUS, GORDIANUS The extent of this work and the great similarity which pervades the coins of these emperors prevent the possibility of describing examples of each reign, especially as the style of art falls off very rapidly after Septimus, and a dry, hard manner of execution becomes general.* These princes all died untimely deaths after reigns of a few months each, the last two only excepted, who reigned respectively nearly five years. Of Maximus, the son of Maximus, slain with his father, there are coins, though rare, of nearly every class except those of the Alexandrian mint. The denarii and the large and middle bronze are the most common, but all are rare. Marcus Antonius Gordianus was a descendant of the ancient race of the Gracchi, and by his mother, Ulpia Gordiana, of the Emperor Trajan: he was proclaimed emperor at Carthage; but in the contest which ensued with Maximinus both he and his son were slain, A.D. 238, after a reign of five weeks. There are coins both of himself and his son, with the inscription IMP. CAES. MANT. GORDIANVS AFR. AVG., and it is difficult to distinguish one from the other, except by the style of the portraits. Those of the younger Gordian are extremely rare. Balbinus was of ancient Roman family, being descended from Cornelius Balbus Theophanes, a friend of Pompey the Great, while Pupienus was the son of a poor mechanic, and had raised himself to an eminent position entirely by his own merit. These two personages were elected co-emperors by the senate in opposition to Maximinus; but the death of Maximinus, which almost immediately followed,_removed all opposition to the senatorial choice. The Prætorian guard, who considered it an interference with their own election of Maximinus, broke into the palace and murdered both emperors, in the year 238 A.D., after a reign of three months. * See Chapter on types, weights, values, &c., of the Roman coinage, p. 37 The coins of Balbinus are rare, and have generally on the obverse the inscription IMP. CAES. D. CAEL. BALBINVS AVG. (Imperator Cæsar Decimus Cælius Balbinus Augustus), and on some reverses VICTORIA AVGG. (Vietoria Augustorum). A large brass coin of Balbinus bears on the obverse his laurelled profile, it exhibits a deep double chin, with the inscription IMP(erator) CAES(ar) D(ecimus) CAEL(ius) BALBINVS. AVG(ustus). The type of the obverse is, three togated figures on curule chairs on a suggestum, superintending a donation to the people. In this ceremony they are assisted by a military officer. Before them is a statue of Liberality, with the legend, LIBERALITAS. AVGVSTORVM: "the liberality of the Cæsars." These three figures represent Balbinus, Pupienus, and the young Gordian between the two, whom the people already wished to see emperor, regretting the untimely fate of his grandfather. The coins of Pupienus are more rare than those of Balbinus, and the name and titles generally stand IMP. CAES. M. CLOD. PVPIENVS AVG. (Imperator Marcus Clodius Pupienus Augustus), and the reverses have sometimes Providentia Deorum, intimating that the senate were directed by the gods in the happy selection of the two emperors whose reigns unfortunately terminated suddenly. Marcus Antonius Gordianus, surnamed Pius, was а grandson of Gordianus Africanus, Senior, whose death, with that of his son, was deeply regretted both by senate and people, and an emperor of the same family being clamoured for by all parties this prince was elected on the death of Balbinus and Pupienus, though only sixteen years of age at the time. He prosecuted with vigour the war against Sapor, King of Persia, who had overrun the Roman dominions in the East; but was assassinated in the midst of his career on the frontier of Persia by the intrigues of Philip, the Arabian, in the year 244 A.D. There are coins of this emperor in all metals and sizes except small brass. There are also coins of his wife Tranquillina; but those of Roman mintage are of excessive rarity. Those of the Greek Imperial mints are also rare; the small base metal or potin coins of Alexandria being the most easily procured. A Greek Imperial coin of large brass, struck at the important |