VALENS AD 364-378

AE3. 2.28g, 18.4mm

MINTED: Aquileia mint, AD 364-367 REF: RIC IX Aquileia 9b, type i(a)

OBVERSE: D N VALEN-S P F AVG, pearl-diademed, draped and cuirassed bust right. REVERSE: SECVRITAS REIPVBLICAE, Victory advancing left, holding wreath and palm branch; A in left field, SMAQP in exergue.

Notes:

Well-centered on compact flan with slightly ragged edges.  A few areas of green hoard deposits remaining. Lightly toned reddish copper surfaces - an example of a coin cleaned to the original colour of its metal and appearing close to as it would when it first circulated in ancient times. 

Historical Notes:

Valens was made co-emperor by his elder brother Valentinian I, and governed the eastern provinces.  He contended ineffectually against the Sassanid empire in the east as well as a flow of Gothic refugees encroaching into Roman territory.  This latter affair eventually resulted in a war against a huge confederation of Gothic tribes, Ostrogoths, Huns and Alans.  At the disastrous Battle of Adrianople in 378, two-thirds of the eastern Roman army was destroyed and Valens himself killed.