Antoninianus - Probus Cuirassed, right; VIRTVS AVG

RIC 226, 227 and 228 are all minted by the Rome mint. The reverses all depicts: ‘Mars walking right, holding spear and trophy’. They also all have the same reverse legend: 'VIRTVS AVG'. RIC 226, 227 and 228 are also the only coins of the Rome mint with this reverse in RIC. They only differ in obverse legend and, in part, in officina. According to Pink (*), RIC 226, 227 and 228 (VIRTVS AVG, ‘Mars eilt r’) with exergue/officina mark style ‘-/-//RA’, are part of the 2^nd emission which was minted in the year 277. Guillemain (**) also lists RIC 226, 227 and 228 as part of the 2^nd emission, but dates it in the year 277-278. According to RIC, the above mentioned reverse was only used with the three obverse legends and only the B bust as in RIC 226, 227 and 228. As is clear from Pink, Guillemain and also published examples on probuscoins.fr, three variant legends and three variant busts were also minted. Also, no example of RIC 227 and RIC 228 has been published on probuscoins.fr or by Guillemain and no example of RIC 226 of a coin with a B bust is published (only a B1 bust, #225 by Guillemain). The alternative obverse legends and busts are commonly listed as variants of RIC 226. As is clear from the published examples, RIC 226 and its variants were minted by the 1^st (RA), 3^rd (RΓ), 4^th (RΔ), 6^th (Rς), 7^th (RZ) officina and sometimes no officina was indicated (only the mintmark R). Note that there is one example published with exergue/officina mark style ‘-/Z//R’ (probuscoins.fr #651), which style was not commonly used by any officina in Rome.

(*) Karl Pink, Der Aufbau der römischen Münzprägung in der Kaiserzeit VI/I, Wien, 1949, p. 43-44.

(**) Jean Guillemain, La Monetazione di Probo a Roma (276-282), Ripostiglio della Venèra-Nuovo Catalogo Illustrato Vol III/1, 2009.

The foregoing leads to the following overview:

• RIC 226 - IMP C M AVR PROBVS P F AVG (Pinks legend #3)

Officina(s): -/-//RA | -/-//Rς 

1. radiate, cuirassed, right (B bust, not in Guillemain, no example on probuscoins.fr, Numista #294741);
2. [var] radiate, draped, right (A bust, Guillemain #113 (RA), #173 (Rς), example: probuscoins.fr #3542, Numista #470779);

• RIC 226var - IMP C M AVR PROBVS AVG (Pinks legend #1)

Officina(s): -/-//RA | -/-//Rς | -/-//RZ | -/Z//R

1. [var] radiate, draped, right (A bust, Guillemain #107 (RA), #167 (Rς), 182 (RZ), example: probuscoins.fr #651, #675, #665, #2352, Numista #470780);

• RIC 226var - IMP C M AVR PROBVS P AVG (Pinks legend #2)

Officina(s): -/-//RΔ 

1. [var] radiate, cuirassed, left (B1 bust, Guillemain #225 (RΔ), no example on probuscoins.fr, not in Numista);

• RIC 226var - VIRTVS PROBI AVG (Pinks legend #4)

Officina(s): -/-//RA | -/-//RΓ | -/-//Rς 

1. [var] helmeted, radiate, cuirassed, left, holding spear in right hand and shield in left hand (E1 bust, Guillemain #111 (RA), #133 (RΓ), #171, #178 (Rς), example: probuscoins.fr #678, #3272, #3493, Numista #470781);

• RIC 227 - IMP C PROBVS AVG (Pinks legend #7)

1. Radiate, cuirassed bust right (B bust, not in Guillemain, no example on probuscoins.fr, Numista #294742);

• RIC 228 PROBVS P F AVG (Pinks legend #11) 

1. Radiate, cuirassed bust right  (B bust, not in Guillemain, no example on probuscoins.fr, Numista #294743).