First, a very brief historical background on the period:
(Click here to jump straight to the coin links)

Publius Licinius Egnatius Gallienus was about 40 when his father Valerian was declared emperor by his troops in 253. Gallienus was made Caesar immediately by his father, but was declared as an emperor (Augustus) within a month, when his father arrived in Rome. He was given responsibility over the western provinces, while Valerian moved east to fight the new Persian Sassanian kingdom. They would not see each other again.

The coin to the left is an antoninianus of Valerian I. To the right is a dirhem of the Sassanian king, Shapur I.

Gallienus ruled as a co-emperor from 253-260, before the treacherous capture of his father by the Sassanian king Shapur I. Gallienus' sons had also been declared as Caesars, but by the end of 260 both had perished. From 260-268 he ruled alone, during one of the most difficult times of the empire. Not only was the empire facing invasions on all sides from various barbarian groups, but he had to face at least 8 rebellions from his own governors and generals!

Antoniniani of Gallienus' family. Wife Salonina, and sons Valerian II and Saloninus.

Antoniniani of some of the rebels. Macrianus, Quietus, Postumus, and a coin struck in Mediolanum by Aureolus in support of Postumus.

Given the disasters that occurred during his reign and the fact that "the winners write the history books", it's not surprising that he is portrayed very negatively. However, given the fact that Gallienus managed to remain emperor for fifteen years during all of this chaos suggests otherwise. A look at the battles and rebellions that took place show him going back and forth almost constantly during his reign fighting battles, trying to hold his empire together. He simply had the misfortune to be the ruler of the Roman Empire at the time when, through a variety of reasons, the empire seemed bent on falling apart. Gallienus managed to bring the empire through this incredibly difficult period without complete disaster.

Perhaps due to all of these problems, the rate of inflation soared incredibly during this period. The antoninianus, which had begun as a silver coin, was by now heavily debased. So many of these were being pumped out of the mints that they now offer the collector a huge, and generally very affordable, selection.

One group of these coins was issued very near the end of his reign and honor nine Roman deities, asking for their protection against these troubles. The legend on the backs of the coins translates as "To (the named deity) Preserver of Augustus". There are a rich variety of animals on these, some real and some mythical. This series is sometimes called the "Zoo" of Gallienus. The links below are arranged by which deity the coin was dedicated to - Apollo, Diana, Liber Pater, Jupiter, Hercules, Neptune, Mercury, and Sol. Gallienus' wife, Salonina, also issued coins for this series, asking Juno for protection. It's possible that these coins also refer to religious festivals or games to entertain the Roman people, hopefully diverting their attention from the continuing rebellions, invasions, and plagues and thus help in maintaining the security of the rulers.

The Cunetio Hoard consisting of 54,951 coins was found in England in 1978, and is sometimes used as an example of the coins in circulation when it was buried in the early 270's. About 30% of the coins in the hoard were struck for Gallienus and his family. Of these, 2737 belonged to the "Zoo" series. Using these numbers, and taking into consideration that only Gallienus and his wife (but NOT his sons) produced coins in this series, we come up with a very rough approximation (just this side of a wild guess) that roughly 14% of Gallienus' total coins minted belong to the Zoo series.

Officina	#	Primary type	Secondary type
(Alpha)	1	Pegasus/winged horse (Sol) (Siscia-none)	Lion (Hercules)
(Beta)	2	Panther/tigress (Liber Pater) (Siscia-B or none)
(Gamma)	3	Antelope (Diana)
(Delta)	4	Gryphon (Apollo)	Doe/Elk/Capreolus (Juno)
(epsilon)	5	Doe (Diana)	Boar (Hercules)
(stigma)	6	Goat (Jupiter)	Capricorn (Neptune)
(Zeta)	7	Centaur w/ bow (Apollo) (Siscia-SI above groundline)
(Eta)	8	Centaur w/ globe (Apollo)	Criocamp (Mercury)
(Nu)	9	Hippocamp (Neptune)(Siscia-SI)
X	10	Stag (Diana)(Siscia-SI)
XI	11	Gazelle (Diana)(Siscia-SI)	Bull (Sol)
XII	12	Gazelle (Diana)

During the reign of Gallienus, the Roman Imperial mints were beginning a system of putting mint and/or officina (workshop within a mint) marks on coins, a practice that was to continue throughout the remainder of the Imperial period. Among other things, this might have been needed for quality control, helping to trace irregularities in coin weights and alloys.

In later times the mint of Roma (Rome) used a letter abbreviation for the Latin number of the officina, such as P, S, T, or Q (prima, secunda, tertia, quarta). During this early period though, it was a more mixed system, using a combination of a Greek numbering scheme and Roman. Officinae numbers 1-8 used Greek numerals, while 9 used Nu , which normally meant 50. The normal Greek letter for 9 was Theta , but this was also the first letter of the Greek word for death, Thanatos, and seems to have been considered unlucky. Officinae 10-12 went back to typical Roman numerals, providing a mixed and sometimes confusing pattern. Soon after the reign of Gallienus the Imperial mints seem to have ironed out their system more, with western mints using the latin numerals while the eastern ones used Greek, but the Gallienic period provides an interesting glimpse into the development of this system.

The number "6" by this reasoning is represented by the Greek letter stigma. For an excellent article on the use of this letter as a number, and it's identification as stigma (as opposed to digamma) please see The Numismatica Font Project.

The vast majority of Zoo coins were produced at the mint of Rome, with a few rare examples coming from Siscia. Each officina produced a different coin within the series, with some producing a second, less common type also. Occasionally you'll find an animal with the "wrong" officina mark. These are fascinating, and the rarity leads us to believe that they represented mistakes, perhaps when a die engraver was transferred from one workshop to another. He gets the right animal, but the wrong officina. Or maybe one workshop was falling behind, so another was temporarily enlisted to help catch up on the quota? I show the more common, apparently "official" animal/mint combinations on this table, including the more rare Siscia mint marks.

If you have an comments, questions, or corrections, please email me.
All coins from the author's collection. Not a commercial site, these coins are not for sale.