Argenteus - Galerius VIRTVS MILITVM, Serdica

Galerius struck this issue at Serdica — modern Sofia — as Caesar under Diocletian's Tetrarchic system, and the mint there became one of the primary western Balkan production centers precisely because of its proximity to the Danube frontier and its military supply demands. The argenteus itself was Diocletian's attempt to revive a functioning silver coinage after decades of debased antoniniani had destroyed public confidence in silver denominations entirely.

RIC VI 11b is distinguished from 11a by its reverse mintmark detail — a small but catalogically significant variation that has generated persistent collector confusion between the two.