Watch List notes:

The Roman Empire
Dryantilla, wife of Regalianus

Antoninianus, Carnutum circa 260-261, AR 2.55 g. IMP C M AVR SV [LP DRYANTILLA AVG] Diademed and draped bust r. on crescent. Rev. ...III COS DENTIA AVGG Annona standing l., holding ears of corn and cornucopiae; at her foot, modius. C –. RIC –. Göbl pl. 3, E 1.

Extremely rare and among the finest specimens known if not the finest. Exceptionally
well struck on sound metal and with unusually unobtrusive traces of overstriking for
this issue. Struck on fine metal and good extremely fine
Ex Tkalec 2000, 321 and NAC 29, 2005, 624 sales.
The rebel coinage of Regalianus and Dryantilla was struck briefly in 260/1, when the Empire was in a state of chaos. In the summer of 260 the Persian king Shapur had captured Rome’s senior emperor, Valerian I, and several rebellions soon broke out: Postumus in Gaul, Macrianus and Quietus at Antioch, and the governor Ingenuus at Sirmium. The latter was soon defeated, only to be succeeded by Regallianus, who was hailed emperor by his soldiers at Carnuntum. Regallianus struck coins in his own name and in the name of Sulpicia Dryantilla, a woman who is presumed to be his wife, though it has been suggested she was his mother. Virtually nothing is known of her except that she reportedly was the daughter of Claudia Ammiana Dryantilla and Sulpicius Pollio, an accomplished senator and officer under Caracalla. Their coins were crude productions over-struck on earlier coins – usually Severan denarii, though ranging from Septimius Severus to Maximinus I ‘Thrax’. Enough of the undertype is preserved to allow its identification as a denarius of Severus Alexander struck at Rome in 225 (RIC IV 45, BMCRE VI 249). The two obverses are almost perfectly aligned, with much of the outline of Alexander’s bust and the first half of his inscription, IMP C M AVR SEV [ALEXAND AVG], still visible. The reverse is less clear, but identifiable with close study; in this case Dryantilla’s die was aligned at a virtually opposite axis. To the left of Annona we find the right half of Alexander’s reverse inscription [P M TR P] IIII COS P[P], upside-down, along with the tips of striding Mars’ trophy and cloak. The reverse die used for this coin was also used to strike double-denarii in the name of Regalianus (an example is illustrated RIC V, pt. II, pl. XX, 8, though in the catalog Annona is mis-described as Providentia). AVG and AVGG are used interchangeably for their reverse inscriptions, indicating that the rebels’ engravers merely copied types of coins they encountered in circulation without regard for their relevance to the present regime.