Volusian Silver Antoninianus RIC IV Volusian 177

Monetary Context and the Antoninianus

The antoninianus, originally introduced by Caracalla in AD 215 as a tariffed double-denarius denomination, had evolved by the joint reign of Trebonianus Gallus and Volusian (AD 251 to 253) into the undisputed backbone of Roman imperial silver coinage. The classical denarius had ceased regular mass production under the Gordian dynasty, surviving only as an occasional ceremonial or subsidiary fraction. The fiscal environment confronting Trebonianus Gallus and his son was dominated by structural emergencies. The catastrophe at the Battle of Abritus in AD 251, where the emperors Trajan Decius and Herennius Etruscus perished against the Goths, emptied the imperial treasury and imposed hefty indemnity obligations. Concurrently, the Roman world suffered the onset of the Antonine-scale epidemic known to scholarship as the Plague of Cyprian, which disrupted agricultural output, tax collection, and urban administrative capacity. To maintain massive military payrolls along the Danube frontier and in the eastern provinces facing Sasanian incursions, the central administration relied almost entirely on rapid emissions of antoniniani. Struck in billon rather than good silver, the metal alloy of coins like RIC IV Volusian 177 was systematically reduced, generally falling between twenty and thirty-five percent silver fineness. The antoninianus functioned as an overvalued, fiduciary currency, where nominal face value heavily exceeded intrinsic metallic worth, enabling the state to multiply circulating volume while preserving remaining bullion stocks.

Mint Operations and Production Mechanics

RIC IV Volusian 177 was produced exclusively at the primary imperial mint in Rome. During the joint reign of Gallus and Volusian, the Rome mint maintained a structured officina system, divided across multiple workshops to manage coin output for both Augusti concurrently. Unlike later emissions of the late 250s and 260s, these earlier Rome issues rarely incorporated overt numerical or alphabetical officina marks on the reverse field or in the exergue, leaving internal workshop allocations to be deduced from stylistic die groupings and iconographic pairing patterns. The production standard for this issue followed the mid-century billon norm, with individual coin weights typically fluctuating within a broad range of approximately 2.8 to 4.2 grams, centering around an intended weight standard near 3.5 grams. Production relied on manual hammer striking using cast billon flans that had been lightly surface-treated, often through chemical blanching techniques designed to leach out surface base metals and create a temporary microscopic layer of silver enrichment on the finished surface. Die cutting at Rome retained competent sculptural fidelity despite the accelerating volume of production, presenting standardized portrait styles that clearly distinguished the younger features of Volusian from the heavier, mature visage of his father.

Obverse Iconography and Imperial Representation

The obverse of RIC IV Volusian 177 presents a right-facing bust of Volusian, characterized by three essential attributes: the radiate crown, military cuirass, and paludamentum (drapery). The radiate crown serves as the decisive denomination marker for the antoninianus in third-century Roman numismatics, echoing the solar corona of Sol Invictus and distinguishing the double unit from the laureate single denarius. Volusian is portrayed as a young adult ruler with closely trimmed hair and beard, rendered in the compact military realist style that dominated mid-third-century Roman portraiture. The drapery folds are visible over the shoulders, fastened atop an anatomical cuirass that projects martial authority and preparedness. Die engravers at Rome produced subtle variations across different dies, notably in the volume of the drapery visible beneath the truncation of the neck and the precise angle and execution of the crown spikes. Despite these minor engraver-level differences, the composition remains uniform across the type, presenting an unambiguous visual assertion of Volusian's full collegiate status as Augustus alongside his father.

Reverse Iconography: Cult of Juno Martialis

The reverse of RIC IV Volusian 177 portrays the goddess Juno Martialis seated left upon a throne or stool, holding ears of corn (spicae) in her extended right hand and a globe in her left hand, with drapery falling around her lower body. The invocation of Juno Martialis constitutes one of the most remarkable and localized iconographic campaigns of the joint reign of Trebonianus Gallus and Volusian. Juno Martialis ('Warlike Juno') was an archaic Italian cult deity, closely tied to central Italy and possibly reviving ancient protective rites celebrated in Rome and neighbouring Latin sanctuaries. While other contemporary issues of this series depict Juno Martialis standing within a distinctive domed circular temple (tholos), RIC IV Volusian 177 presents the enthroned divinity holding attributes that combine agricultural fecundity and global imperial dominion. The ears of grain symbolize prosperity, nourishment, and an appeal for relief from food shortages and pestilence, while the celestial globe signifies universal governance and stability under the gods. The combination of martial, maternal, and cosmic symbolism transformed the traditional queen of heaven into an active civic guardian against the twin terrors of foreign war and devastating disease.

Epigraphy and Legend Structure

The obverse legend reads IMP CAE C VIB VOLVSIANO AVG, an abbreviated epigraphic formula rendering 'Imperatori Caesari Caio Vibio Volusiano Augusto' in the dative or nominative case. This inscription encapsulates his full formal imperial nomenclature: the praenomen of command (Imperator), the dynastic honorific (Caesar), his paternal gentile family names (Caius Vibius), his personal cognomen (Volusianus), and the supreme title of Augustus. The lettering is cleanly cut in Roman capitals, arranged in a continuous outward-facing clockwise arc along the perimeter of the coin. The reverse inscription reads IVNONI MARTIALI, set in the dative case as a formal religious dedication ('To Juno Martialis'). Epigraphic dedicating formulas in the dative were standard in Roman numismatics when an emission signified a specific votive offering, temple construction, or supplication to a divinity on behalf of the reigning emperors and the Roman state. The legends demonstrate careful die alignment and uniform letter heights, typical of the urban Rome mint prior to the severe epigraphic deterioration witnessed in late third-century provincial and branch mints.

Typology and Chronological Classification

RIC IV Volusian 177 belongs to the central emission sequence struck at Rome following Volusian's elevation from Caesar to Augustus in late AD 251, continuing into AD 253 when the reign ended violently during the rebellion of Aemilian. Within the typology catalogued in Roman Imperial Coinage Volume IV, Part III, the Juno Martialis issues form a cohesive thematic suite shared between Trebonianus Gallus and Volusian. The type is closely affiliated with companion issues featuring Juno Martialis standing within her round peripteral distyle or tetrastyle shrine (such as RIC IV Volusian 171 and 172) and standing figures holding patera and ears of corn (RIC IV Volusian 174). RIC IV Volusian 177 is typologically distinguished by the enthroned posture of Juno facing left, specifically holding corn-ears and a globe rather than a patera or sceptre. Numismatists generally assign the peak of this series to late AD 251 and AD 252, aligning with the height of public supplications conducted in Rome to ward off the catastrophic pestilence. Die linkage studies confirm that the obverse dies used for RIC IV Volusian 177 were strictly contemporaneous with those used for neighboring military and dynastic types, firmly anchoring the issue within the middle operational phase of the joint reign.

Circulation Patterns and Hoard Presence

Antoniniani of Volusian, including RIC IV Volusian 177, circulated extensively throughout the western and Danubian provinces as well as Italy. Because the reign lasted less than two years, the absolute volume of Gallus and Volusian issues remained smaller than the expansive mintages of the Severans, Gordian III, or Philip I. Nevertheless, hoard analyses across Britain, Gaul, the Rhine frontier, and the Balkans regularly document specimens of this type integrated alongside earlier third-century billon issues. Under Gresham's Law, older coins of superior fineness were progressively removed from circulation and hoarded, leaving billon pieces of the 250s to dominate everyday market transactions. However, when the debasement rate plummeted drastically during the sole reign of Gallienus (AD 260 to 268), antoniniani of the early 250s containing twenty to thirty percent silver were themselves recognized as relatively high-grade assets and preferentially hoarded. Consequently, specimens of RIC IV Volusian 177 frequently appear in coin hoards deposited during the turmoil of the late 260s and 270s, displaying moderate to heavy wear consistent with one to two decades of active circulation before final burial.

References

1. Coin Hoards and Hoarding in the Roman Empire. pp. 142-168
2. The Later Third Century, in The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Coinage. pp. 538-560
3. Online Coins of the Roman Empire: RIC IV Volusian 177. ric.4.vo.177
4. The Roman Imperial Coinage, Vol. IV, Part III: Gordian III to Uranius Antoninus. p. 179, no. 177