The numismatic chronicle and journal of the Royal ... - IndianCoins.org

THE MINT OF LUGDUNUM. 87signalized his own birthday by reviving a type soobviously associated with his 31nativity or again, the;occasion of their issue may be that already referredto, when the senatorial dignity was conferred on thecitizens of Lugdunum.The distinctive features of coins issued by the senatorialmint of Lugdunum under Claudius will best beseen by comparison with examples of the Roman mint.For example, on asses of unquestionably Roman work[PL VI. 27] the letters are large, square, and evenlyplaced, similar to those found on the Roman coins ofTiberius and Germanicus. The style of portraiture isthoroughly characteristic of the Claudian period ofRoman art. On the Lugdunum asses [PL VI. 28]there isthe same uneveuness and irregularity in theform of the letters and flatness in the execution of theportrait that were noticed on the Lugdunumasses ofTiberius [PI. VI. 21] and the sestertius of Caligula[PL VI. 22].The output from the senatorial mint apparentlyconsisted mainly of copper coins, although a somewhatlimited number of sestertii and possibly dupondii seemunder Claudius..to have been struck at LugdunumThe establishment of a senatorial mint at Lugdunum,working in union with that of Rome, tended graduallyto produce a similarity of style in the products of thetwo mints. Down to the time of Vespasian certainlocal mannerisms are stillfew years of his reignobserved, but after the firstthe differences between thetwo mints become less apparent, and finally disappear.During the first six years of Nero's reign (A.D. 54-60)31Suet. Claud. 2 ;and cf. Seneca, De morte Claudi, c. 6.