CILICIA, TARSOS, Valerian I, 253-260 AD, bronze, medallion

DescriptionTarsus was a an ancient and major city of southern Anatolia, in Roman times of somewhat lesser stature than Antioch. Valerian was one of the Roman generals who briefly came to power during the military anarchy of the 3rd century AD. His problems at home led him to try to end the long war with Persia. The Persian Emperor Shapur I treacherously captured him at a peace conference, dragged him back to Persia, held him for ransom, which was not paid, and finally, according to one source, killed him and had his skin stuffed and put on display in the palace. Large coins like this one were usually commemoratives of some sort. Denominations are usually uncertain. If they get to a certain size numismatists tend to call them “medallions.”The Romans, as they were building their empire, preferred to let the local coinage arrangements remain in place. As they developed their political system into the Cult of Personality that was the Empire, they started putting imperial portraits on the local coins. Later, as the Empire began to shrink, they preferred to centralize their coinage operations, eliminating local control. There were also allied and client states, some of which, at times, issued coins celebrating the alliance or subservience.This category includes Greek and Roman coins and those of neighbors and successors, geographically from Morocco and Spain all the way to Afghanistan. Date ranges for these begin with the world’s earliest coins of the 8th century BC to, in an extreme case, the end of Byzantine Empire, 1453 AD.