Obverse: IMP C ALLECTVS PF AVG; Radiate, Draped, and Cuirassed Bust of the Emperor Facing Right.
Reverse: PROVIDENTIA AVG; Providentia Standing to the Left, Holding a Cornucopiae.
Little is known about Allectus except that he served as Praetorian Prefect under the founder of the British Secessionist Empire, Carausius, until he murdered him and seized the throne in 293 A.D. It appears that he was on the defensive almost from the beginning of his reign, since Emperor Maximianus had appointed the competent general Constantius Chlorus as Caesar with the specific command to end the British insurrection. Chlorus rather quickly rolled up the Northern coast of Gaul and launched an invasion of Britain itself in 296 A.D. Although Carausius had established a powerful naval fleet to defend the island, Chlorus crossed the Channel during a thick fog, avoiding the fleet of Alectus altogether. During the decisive land battle in Hampshire, Allectus was defeated and killed, and Constantius was welcomed as the “restorer of the eternal light” of Rome to Britain.
How many hands have touched a coin in your pocket or purse? What eras and lands have the coin traversed on its journey into our possession? As we reach into our pockets to pull out some change, we rarely hesitate to think of who might have touched the coin before us, or where the coin will venture to after it leaves our hands. More than money, coins are a symbol of the state that struck them, of a specific time and location, whether contemporary currencies or artifacts of a long forgotten empire. This stunning hand-struck coin reveals an expertise of craftsmanship and intricate sculptural detail that is often lacking in contemporary machine-made currencies. This coin is a memorial to an ancient insurrection passed from the hands of civilization to civilization, from generation to generation that appears as vibrant today as the day it was struck. - (C.4611)