SALONINA
AD 254-268
AE Antoninianus. 2.93g, 19mm
MINTED: Rome mint, AD 260-268
REF: RIC V 31; Göbl MIR 618x
OBVERSE: SALONINA AVG, bust of Salonina, diademed, draped, right, on crescent.
REVERSE: VENVS VICTRIX, Venus standing left with shield at feet, holding helmet right hand and sceptre in left hand.

Provenance:
Ex E.E. Clain-Stefanelli Collection
Elvira Eliza Clain-Stefanelli (1914-2001) was born in Romania, and during World War II, she and her husband Vladimir were sent by the Gestapo to Buchenwald concentration camp. They survived their 3-year imprisonment and when the war was over, moved to Italy, where they worked in the numismatic trade. In 1951, they moved to the United States, where their knowledge and passion for numismatics led to them becoming curators of National Numismatics Collection at the Smithsonian. Together, they were also authors of numerous important reference works and curated an excellent personal collection of coins.

Notes: 
Thick dark green patina with some earthen deposits. 
 
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.