Antoninianus - Probus radiate, nude; ERCVLI PACIF or HERCVLI PACIF; Hercules

Reverse

Hercules, standing left, holding olive-branch in right hand and club and lion-skin in left hand.

Script: Latin

Lettering:
ARCVLI PACIF or AERCVLI PACIF or ERCVLI PACIF or HERCVLI PACIF
-/-//SXXT

Translation:
Herculi Pacificatori.
To Hercules, the peacemaker.

Comment

This coin was minted by the 2nd officina (exergue mark SXXT) and 5th officina (exergue mark VXXT) of Ticinum (Karl Pink, Der Aufbau der römischen Münzprägung in der Kaiserzeit VI/I, Wien, 1949).

This coin depicts the F19 bust of Probus (bust type according to Pierre Bastiens grouping of bust types): bust of Probus, radiate, heroically nude, left, seen from behind, holding spear in right hand and square shield (aegis) in left hand.

The F19 bust is not in RIC at all. RIC sometimes mentions a 'square shield' (for example: RIC 388) or even an 'aegis' (for example: RIC 296). However it always mentions Probus 'cuirassed' while the F19 bust is '(heroically) nude'.

See for other examples of this RIC 376 variant with a F19 bust:
-probuscoins.fr #1614 (2nd officina);
-probuscoins.fr #4019 (2nd officina);
-probuscoins.fr #2600 (5th officina).

The original RIC text mentions 3 main variations that include a total of 6 bust types and then there are 5 known variants including this F19 variant:
[1] radiate, cuirassed, right, sometimes holding spear (bust B1 and F9);
[2] helmeted, radiate, cuirassed, left, holding spear in right hand and shield in left hand (bust E1);
[3] radiate, cuirassed to waist, left, sometimes seen from behind, holding spear and sometimes shield (bust F8, F5 and F1);
[4] (var) this F19 bust;
[5] (var) E8 bust (probuscoins.fr #2268);
[6] (var) E2 bust (probuscoins.fr #3630);
[7] (var) F3 bust (probuscoins.fr #1610);
[8] (var) D1 var bust (probuscoins.fr #487).

Interesting fact