Aureus - Tetricus I SPES AVGG, Treveri

Tetricus I ruled the Gallic Empire from Trier at a moment of terminal fragility — his reign ended not in battle but in staged surrender, when he reportedly negotiated his own defection to Aurelian at the Battle of Châlons in 274. The story that he secretly begged Aurelian for rescue from his own troops, quoting Virgil in a letter, may be apocryphal, but Aurelian's subsequent clemency toward him was real and unusual enough to attract ancient comment.

Gold aurei of Tetricus I are genuinely rare survivors of a regime that lasted barely three years and whose mint output was dominated by debased antoniniani.