Women Of Rome: Galeria Valeria - Wife Of Galerius

Excellent group and write up. I don't have very many empresses, but I do have one of hers.

I was thinking it, but you said it!

Really nice write-up by the way.

Thanks, Paul, you have given us a nice thumbnail description of the reverse type that was used for all the mints, with some slight variations from city to city. The obverse is harder to nail down, but the design at Thessalonika was a bit more decorative than some. Nice coin BTW.

Thanks also to everyone who posted a thought, comment, or best of all showed us a coin (Ron). That is much appreciated.

Still needed:
We could use examples from other officinae, anything from Nicomedia, and obverse styles not already shown. Our goal is to chart the diversity of approach to the subject by different celators. For instance, we now have examples from the alpha, beta, gamma, and delta officinae of Thessalonica. From these we can see that there were essentially two interpretations of how her hair was to be treated. Which of those interpretations came first? Did they vary over time, or only by officina? Did any single officina use BOTH styles?

Show us your coins for her and help us see more clearly.

Very informative writeup on some great coins. Thanks for taking the time to put this together. I have not added any empresses ... yet.

I think you are correct, Paul, about the dual strand necklace at Thessalonika.

While working on the writeup for another one of the women, I ran into a special note that gives some context to what you are seeing. For effigies on silver if we go all the way back to Sabina (and before I am sure) we observe that irrespective of the treatment of the hair for the empresses, their clothing is most generally subdued as a simple draping of the figure with little embelleshment. Most of the examples we have seen for Gal Val follow that pattern. However, the examples from Serdica and Heraclea show the addition of a simple necklace, while at Siscia and Thessalonica the bust may be diademed, draped, and even mantled. Commenting on this treatment of a later empress, Patrick Bruun in RIC associates this "look", hair and body, with Magnia Urbica, calling it her "style". If you go back to her thread http://goccf.com/t/280149 and scroll down to the pics added by Eddop you will see the innovation to which Bruun refers. Disregarding hair we do not see anything so elaborate prior to this empress. There you will see the multi strand necklace in use at Ticinum.

Thank you Warren. Truth be told she fell into the mint rep thing as part of how I pursue the bronze of the first Tetrarchy. I am fascinated by the little distinctions each mint introduced as part of making their products distinctive, as I am sure it was required. For me, collecting LRB is about collecting the mints. If there is a connection to the larger political or personal history of the honored subject, so much the better.

How perfect EFLC, the one mint I do NOT have. Now if we can only find another one, he he. Good job!!

AE Follis
Obv: GAL VALERIA AVG, Diademed & draped bust right.
Rev: VENERI VICTRICI, Venus standing left holding an apple. A left, * right in fields. MKV in ex.
Mint: Cyzicus
Minted: 309-310AD
Dimension: 27mm
Weight: 5.4 grams
Ref: RIC 58