Antoninianus - Probus Helmeted, cuirassed, spear and shield, left; VIRTVS PROBI AVG; Mars

Reverse

Mars, helmeted, walking right, holding spear in right hand and trophy in left hand; sometimes at his feet, one or two captives.
Mintmark in exergue.

Script: Latin

Lettering:
VIRTVS PROBI AVG
In exergue XXI followed by officina mark or in exergue XXI and officina mark in right field or in between legs of Mars.

Unabridged legend: Virtus Probi Augusti.

Translation: Courage of emperor (Augustus) Probus.

Comment

RIC 810 was minted by the first to the sixth officina of the Siscia mint. The original RIC text mentions 6 different variations/different bust types (bust types according to Pierre Bastiens grouping of bust types; see illustrated: probvs.net), and there are also multiple variants known:

1. radiate, draped, right (A bust (*), Numista #293166);
2. radiate, cuirassed, right (B bust (Alföldi - (**), example: probuscoins.fr #1559), Numista #293848);
3. helmeted, radiate, cuirassed, left, holding spear in right hand and shield in left hand (bust E1, Alföldi 096.225-241, Numista #293849);
4. radiate, wearing imperial mantle, left, holding sceptre surmounted by eagle in right hand (bust H2, Alföldi 096.171-188, Numista #293850);
5. radiate, cuirassed, left (B1 bust, Alföldi 096.197-202, Numista #293851);
6. radiate, cuirassed, left, with spear and shield (F1 bust, Alföldi 096.205-223, Numista #399374);
7. [var] radiate, cuirassed, left, with spear (F5 bust (***), Alföldi 096.203-204, not in Numista);
8. [var] radiate, helmeted, cuirassed or draped left, holding spear and shield, seen from back (bust E2 bust (example: probuscoins.fr #364), Alföldi 096.247-254, not in Numista);
9. [var] radiate, cuirassed or draped, left, holding spear and shield, seen from back (bust F8 bust, Alföldi 096.242-246, Numista #399516);
10. [var] radiate, wearing imperial mantle, left, holding pudgio in left hand and Victory on globe in right (bust I8 (example: probuscoins.fr #519), Alföldi -, not in Numista);
11. [var] radiate, wearing imperial mantle, right, holding sceptre surmounted by eagle in right hand (bust H4 (example: probuscoins.fr #1487), Alföldi -, not in Numista);
12. [var] radiate, wearing imperial mantle, left, holding sceptre surmounted by eagle, and globe in right hand (bust H26 (example: probuscoins.fr #2979), Alföldi -, not in Numista);
13. [var] helmeted, radiate, cuirassed, right (bust D1 (no example published), Alföldi 096.224-224a, not in Numista).

(*) RIC seems to mistakenly not list the A2 bust (Probus, draped and cuirassed, right) but the A bust (Probus, draped, right). See for example RIC 651 where the A2 and A bust are separately listed. There are no published examples of the A bust. There are multiple published images of examples with the A2 bust (probuscoins.fr #2967, #2211, #2968 and #4565) and also Alföldi only lists the A2 bust (#096.189-196 in (**) Andreas Alföldi, Vorarbeiten zu einem Corpus der in Siscia geprägten römischen Kaisermünzen. Heft V. Verzeichnis der Antoniniane des Kaisers Probus, Budapest, 1939).

(***) The F5 bust can be considered as a variant because the original RIC text only mentions "with or without spear and shield" not "with or without spear and shield or spear".

According to Pink, RIC 810 is part of the 4th (exergue-/mint mark style: -/-//XXIP), 5th (-/-//XXIP) and 7th (-/P//XXI) emission, which was in the year 277, 278 and 280 (Karl Pink, Der Aufbau der römischen Münzprägung in der Kaiserzeit VI/I, Wien, 1949, p. 41).

Pink distinguishes between "Mars nackt [nude] g. r" (clear example: probuscoins.fr #2967) and "Mars im mil. Gewand [robe] r" (clear example: probuscoins.fr #1512). Published examples of RIC 810 only show Mars nude.

The ‘mint-/exergue mark’ “ϵ in right field; XXI” listed in RIC is a mistake because it cannot exist for RIC 810. The ϵ was only used during the 1st-3rd and 8th emission, when RIC 810 was not minted.

Interesting fact