Salonina Billon Antoninianus, RIC V Salonina (2) 16

Monetary Context and Debasement

The antoninianus represented by RIC V Salonina (2) 16 was minted during the deep crisis of the Roman monetary system under the sole reign of Gallienus between AD 260 and 268. Following the capture of Gallienus's father and co-emperor Valerian I by the Sasanian Empire in AD 260, the Roman state faced existential military and administrative pressures on multiple frontiers. These pressures were compounded by catastrophic internal rebellions and the secession of both the Gallic Empire in the west and the Palmyrene realm in the east. To finance continuous troop mobilizations, pay military stipends, and maintain civic loyalty, the imperial treasury dramatically accelerated the production of the radiate coin, known modernly as the antoninianus. By the time this issue was struck in the latter half of the decade, the denomination had lost virtually all of its former silver standard. What had originated under Caracalla in AD 215 as a coin containing approximately fifty percent silver had degenerated under Gallienus into a billon alloy possessing barely two to four percent silver, with base copper making up the overwhelming remainder. To retain a semblance of precious metal appearance, mint workers treated freshly struck planchets with an electrochemical or chemical pickling process that leached base copper from the surface, creating a fleeting, enriched silver wash. This artificial silvering wore away rapidly in trade, exposing the dull reddish bronze core beneath. As a consequence, the public increasingly regarded the antoninianus as fiat token currency, which fueled domestic price inflation and severely disrupted interprovincial commerce.

Production and Mint Organization

The issue RIC V Salonina (2) 16 was struck exclusively at the imperial mint of Rome, which served as the administrative and typographic core of Gallienus's monetary policy. During his sole reign, the mint of Rome operated on a highly coordinated workshop system, divided into multiple numbered or lettered officinae that carried out synchronized production programs. The issue of Salonina's doe reverse corresponds directly to the famous Rome animal series, a vast coordinated emission that paired Gallienus and his family members with various tutelary deities and their associated animal familiars. Although specific officina marks are absent or found only as minor control marks on certain dies of this specific Salonina type, the workshop management at Rome maintained an intense striking cadence to satisfy the massive volume requirements of the mid-260s AD. Planchets were mass-produced by pouring molten billon into gang moulds or cutting cast rods, resulting in irregular blanks with variable flan thicknesses, ragged flan cracks, and slightly eccentric circumferences. The physical execution of dies reflects the hurried environment of late-reign Rome, featuring rapid engraving, relatively shallow relief, and occasional die clashing. The weight standard of the antoninianus during this phase fluctuated widely, with individual specimens typically clustering between 2.2 and 3.5 grams and measuring between 18 and 21 millimetres in diameter. This extreme physical variability underscores how mechanical precision was deliberately compromised in order to maintain maximum numerical output.

Obverse Iconography

The obverse of RIC V Salonina (2) 16 presents a regal right-facing portrait bust of Cornelia Salonina, adorned with a stephane or diadem and draped in formal imperial robes. In keeping with the strict iconographic conventions of third-century Roman double denominations, the bust rests upon a horizontal crescent moon. The crescent provided an immediate visual indicator of denomination for imperial women, serving the precise functional role that the radiate crown fulfilled for male rulers. Stylistically, the portrait exhibits the refined yet severe classical conventions adopted by the Rome mint during Gallienus's sole reign. Salonina's hair is arranged in the distinctive late Antonine and Severan revival style popularised in the 260s AD, carefully gathered into neat horizontal waves across the scalp and drawn upward at the back of the neck into a broad braided plait pinned to the crown. The facial features convey composed maturity, prominent arched eyebrows, and a dignified expression designed to project dynastic stability, matronly virtue, and imperial legitimacy. Die engravers produced notable subtle variations in the treatment of drapery folds and diadem embellishments, ranging from delicate, naturalistic rendering to simplified, geometric linear grooves, reflecting the hands of different artists working across the active workshops of the Roman capital.

Reverse Iconography and Symbolism

The reverse design depicts a female deer, or doe, walking gracefully toward the left. This pastoral zoomorphic image forms an integral component of the celebrated animal series, or zoo series, struck at Rome during the late sole reign of Gallienus, traditionally placed in AD 267 or 268. While Gallienus's own issues in this series honor gods such as Apollo, Diana, Neptune, and Liber paired with creatures such as centaurs, stags, hippocamps, and panthers, Salonina's coinage invokes Juno, the supreme queen of the Roman pantheon. The doe was sacred to Juno in her ancient Latin and Italic protective roles, symbolising gentleness, maternal care, and divine watchfulness over women and childbirth. By depicting the doe pacing calmly, the coin communicated an aura of tranquility, gentleness, and celestial peace, offering a pointed spiritual antidote to the violent warfare and instability then racking the Roman world. In ancient numismatic literature and early modern cataloguing, the animal on this reverse has occasionally been misidentified as a hind, a goat, or an unantlered deer; however, specialist studies confirm its intended identity as Juno's sacred doe, balancing the antlered stags and hinds dedicated to Diana on contemporary issues of Gallienus.

Epigraphy and Legend Variants

The epigraphy of RIC V Salonina (2) 16 is executed in clear Roman capital lettering, exhibiting the concise conventions characteristic of mid-third-century imperial issues. The obverse legend appears in two primary attested variants: the abbreviated COR SALONINA AVG and the slightly fuller CORNEL SALONINA AVG. Both forms abbreviate her full aristocratic name, Cornelia Salonina Augusta, confirming her status as the empress and legitimate consort of Gallienus. On the reverse, the legend consistently reads IVNONI CONS AVG, an abbreviation for Iunoni Conservatrici Augustae, which translates as 'To Juno, the Protectress of the Augusta'. This dedicatory dative formula establishes the coin as a votive invocation or religious dedication, publicly thanking Juno for preserving the empress or petitioning the goddess for her continued divine patronage. The letters are cut into the dies with straight, utilitarian strokes, often showing small dot serifs. Depending on die wear and flan centering, the obverse legend may start low on the left and run continuously across the upper perimeter, while the reverse legend is evenly spaced around the upper margin, leaving the exergual area beneath the doe's ground line either clear or occupied by discrete workshop marks.

Typology and Chronological Placement

Within the broader typology of third-century Roman coinage, RIC V Salonina (2) 16 occupies an explicit place in the second volume of Percy Webb's classification in Roman Imperial Coinage, under the sole reign of Gallienus. In the master typology established by Robert Göbl in Moneta Imperii Romani 36, this issue is integrated into the final emission sequence of the Rome mint, dated firmly to the period between AD 267 and 268. This dating aligns the doe type with Gallienus's decennalia and vicennalia celebrations, as well as the special religious supplications decreed to appease the pantheon during a severe outbreak of plague and continuous military threats. Typologically, the type is closely linked to RIC V Gallienus 177 through 283, which feature complementary animal types dedicated to conserving deities bearing the CONS AVG formula. The Salonina doe issue is distinctly classified based on the direction of the animal, walking left, which differentiates it from rarer varieties or die anomalies showing animals turned to the right. While the general catalogue type spans AD 260 to 268 by virtue of encompassing the sole reign of Gallienus, numismatic research demonstrates that its actual striking occurred in the final two years of that chronological window.

Circulation Patterns and Archaeological Evidence

Despite its severe metallurgical debasement, the RIC V Salonina (2) 16 antoninianus circulated extensively throughout the central and western provinces of the Roman Empire. Large quantities entered circulation immediately upon striking to cover military wages and metropolitan expenditures in Italy. Major third-century coin hoards, such as the Cunetio hoard and the Normanby hoard discovered in Britain, as well as multiple continental deposits across Gaul, the Rhine frontier, and the Danubian provinces, contain substantial numbers of late Rome animal issues of Gallienus and Salonina. The archaeological distribution demonstrates that these coins moved rapidly across imperial boundaries, often crossing into the territory of the breakaway Gallic Empire where they circulated alongside regional billon radiates. Because of their thin silver wash, specimens recovered from archaeological contexts almost universally display oxidized, darkened copper surfaces, with the original silvery plating surviving only in protected areas of the legends and portrait recesses. The heavy wear observed on many recovered specimens confirms that they remained in active circulation for several years, continuing to function as fractional market money well into the reigns of Claudius Gothicus, Quintillus, and the early years of Aurelian before being swept away by Aurelian's monetary reform in AD 274.

References

1. The Cunetio Treasure: Roman Coinage of the Third Century AD. British Museum Publications
2. Die Münzprägung des Kaisers Gallienus und seiner Familie (MIR 36). Moneta Imperii Romani 36, Vienna
3. Online Coins of the Roman Empire: RIC V Salonina (2) 16. RIC V Salonina (2) 16
4. The Roman Imperial Coinage, Volume V, Part I. pp. 191-198