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Pupienus (238), Antoninianus, 238, Rome, radiate bust, rev. clasped hands, 4.61g (RIC 11b; C 21). Good very fine with an excellent portrait, somewhat ragged flan, rare (£180-220)

The government of Pupienus, and his co-emperor Balbinus, two distinguished but elderly ex-consuls, was the creation of the Senate, as the legend in the present coin clearly indicates. The clasped hands indicates the cordiality between the two men – something of a fiction if Roman historians are to be believed. Both Pupienus and Balbinus were resented by the prætorians, who dragged them from the palace to their camp where they were brutally murdered. The joint reign lasted a mere 99 days

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