Probvs Ticinum RIC 459

Probus Ticinum VOTIS X ET XX FEL

OBVERSE: VIRTV-S P-ROB-I AVG
REVERSE: VOTIS X ET XX FEL

EMISSION: 3

BUST TYPE: E1 (BASTIEN'S CLASSIFICATION) 
 
LITERATURE: RIC: 459

RARITY: R3

NOTE: "The reverse tells us that Probus was renewing his ten- and twenty-year vows this year. These vows held a prominent place in public and official life in Rome during the Imperial period. They were like a contract, a conditional pact between a man and the deity he invoked. They were proposed by a man who himself made the rules. At the time the vows were made, they were called susceptum or conceptum: the commitment was made, the contract concluded. The emperor asked for a favor and in return, when it was fulfilled, offered a temple, sacrifices, or even games in honor of the deity. This debt was paid only if the deity granted the request. Periodic vows were usually for the successful outcome of a war or negotiations, for the provisioning of the city in case of a shortage, or were simply made for the salvation and well-being of the emperor and the imperial household, as seems to be the case with this coin.From the Republican period onwards, these vows were renewed for several successive years (five-year, ten-year, and even twenty-year vows). These periodic public vows were made and fulfilled by the consuls on the day they took office. Similarly, new emperors fulfilled vows made the year before by their predecessors, and also made new vows in the name of the Roman state or in its name before a deity (for Probus this seems to have been a contract with Sol Invictus).

6th KNOWN SPECIMEN IN THE WORLD (INFORMATION FROM S.ESTIOT)

Very rare and desirable reverse type. One of the most sough-after reverses in the whole Probus' coinage. The variant with military bust is much, much rarer than the (also rare) variant with standard cuirassed bust right (cf. RIC 458).

Only the second example of this type present in private collection. The other one was in Philippe Gysen collection (same obverse die)

3,14g ;  ex Skibniewski

Sammlung : Probus Ticinum