SALONINA AD 254-268 Billon Antoninianus. 2.6g, 24.5mm MINTED: Colonia Agrippinensis (Cologne) mint, AD 258-259 REF: RIC 5; Göbl 902c; RSC 36

OBVERSE: SALONINA AVG, diademed and draped bust right, resting on a crescent. REVERSE: DEAE SEGETIAE, Segetia standing facing within tetrastyle temple, both hands raised. Notes: Nice metal with sharp details. Minor edge splits. 

This interesting reverse type, unique to Salonina, was part of a Cologne mint-only series struck for the family of Emperor Valerian.  Valerian himself was paired with Vulcan, his son and co-ruler Gallienus with Mars, and Gallienus's wife Salonina with Segetia, goddess of the harvest.   

Historical Notes:

Cornelia Salonina, the wife of Emperor Gallienus, was said to have been a woman of beauty and intelligence.  Despite the fact that the mid 3rd century was a period of constant upheaval for the empire, Salonina helped her husband nurture a revival of the arts in Rome.  She was a patron of writers and philosophers and especially admired the Neoplatonic scholar Plotinus.  In the course of the wars her husband had to fight, she lost two of her sons, Valerian II and Saloninus.  Gallienus himself was assassinated while beseiging the rebel Aureolus at Milan in 268, and in the purges of his family that followed, Salonina was probably executed along with their youngest son, Marinianus.