★ From WWII Auction in Munich ★

Postumus (259-268) Antoninianus, 3rd emission, 263-265. Trier, 3.28g, 21mm.
Obv: IMP C POSTVMVS P F AVG; radiate, draped and cuirassed bust right
Rev: PROVIDENTIA AVG; Providentia standing left, holding globe in right hand, transverse scepter in left. RIC V 80; Mairat 97; RSC 295a.
From the arnoldoe collection; ex Otto Helbing Nachfolger 86, 25.11.1942, lot 2139. (A scan of the catalogue is available at bit.ly/helbing1942.)

Otto Helbing founded a coin firm in 1878, and their first auction was held in 1888. Helbing’s nephew Heinrich Hirsch joined the firm in 1900. Under the Nazis, the firm split. The Hirsch family fled to Czechoslovakia before the war and ultimately reopened under their family name in Munich in 1953, continuing to this day. Meanwhile, Otto Helbing Nachf. remained in Germany and held auctions in Munich under the auspices of the Nazis. This coin is from one of those auctions, which took place two months after the first allied bombing of the city. One wonders about the source of the material, given the large amounts of plunder looted from Jewish and other victims of the Nazi regime.